BERKELEY^ 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
.CALIFORNIA 


B/oscience  &  Natur~ 
Resources  Library 


LEAYES 


FROM    THE 


NOTE  BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


BY 


W.  J.  BRODERIP,  ESQ.,  F.  R-.  S. 

ETC.    ETC.     ETC.  » 

AUTHOR.  OF    "ZOOLOGICAL    RECREATIONS,"    ETC.    ETC. 


Farewell,  farewell !  but  this  I  toll 
To  thee,  thou  Wedding-Guest : 

lie  prayeth  well,  who  lovetli  well 
Both  man  and  bird  and  beast. 

The  A7icient  Mariner. 


^jOg 

BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED    BY    E.    LITTELL    &    CO 

NEW    YORK:    G.   P.  PUTNAM. 

1852. 


BIOLOGY 
LIBRARY 

G 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 
THE  Bearer  and  the  Macauco,    .   , 


PART  II. 

Menageries  opposed  to  romance — The  Condor — Unpro- 
tected state  of  its  eggs — Elevations  chosen  for  their 
resting-place — Color,  <fec.  of  the  nestling — The  Condor's 
feast — Indian  mode  of  capturing  the  bird— Exciting 
nature  of  the  sport — Huniboldt's  account  of  the  Con- 
dor's tenacity  of  life — The  Lammergeyer — Its  perti- 
nacity and  audacity — Dimensions  of  the  bird — The 
Condor's  offspring  in  captivity — Eggs  placed  under  a 
domestic  lien — Slowness  of  the  hatching  process — 
Description  of  the  young  bird — Its  food — Attachment 
of  the  Hen  to  its  nursling — Death  of  the  young  Condor 
— Modification  of  instinct — Relative  proportions  of  new- 
born quadrupeds,  birds  just  hatched,  and  fishes — Feath- 
ers of  the  Condor  used  as  quills — The  King  Vulture — 
Its  brilliant  colors — Account  of  a  Buzzard  hatching 
chickens, -J 

PART  III. 

Transmigration  of  Souls — The  Stork  ;  qualities  attributed 
to  the  bird  by  the  ancients — Its  migration — The  White 
Stork — Metamorphosis  of  Antigone — Gratitude  of  Storks 
proverbial — Heracleis  of  Tarentum  rewarded  by  a  Stork 
— Supposed  gratitude,  chastity,  and  hatred  of  infidelity 
of  the  Stork — Its  physical  structure — Its  food—"  Live 
fish  " — Feeding  the  nestlings — Visits  of  the  Stork  to 
the  nests  of  Wild  Ducks — Traditions  connected  with 
the  White  Stork— The  Black  Stork — Its  habits— Colonel 
Montagu's  specimen — Mode  of  cooking  the  Stork — 
The  "  Adjutant  "— -The  Stork  family — General  re- 
marks,  8 

PART  IV. 

Africa,  the  country  of  wonders — Phoenixes  and  Winged 
Serpents — The  Giraffe — The  Hippopotamus  at  Cairo — 
Pea-fowl  sent  to  Africa  as  a  present  to  the  King  of 
Dahomy — Expected  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's 
collection — The  Rhinoceros — Cause  of  its  death — The 
African  Elephant — Dimensions  given  by  Major  Den- 
ham — Manner  of  hunting  the  Elephant — Faust — The 
Hippopotamus — Its  osteological  organization — Dissec- 
tion of  a  Hippopotamus  calf — Voracious  appetite  of  the 
Hippopotamus — Voice  of  the  animal — Shooting  excur- 
sion— The  skin  converted  into  an  instrument  of  torture 
— Barbarous  punishment  of  offenders — Supposed  enmity 
of  the  Hippopotamus  and  the  Crocodile — The  Hippo- 
potamus a  master  of  the  healing  art, 14 

PART  V. 

A  freezing  Spring — The  American  Barn-Swallow — Its 
nest — Superstition  regarding  the  Swallow — The  Chim- 
ney-Swallow— Courage  of  the  Purple  Martin — Extraor- 
dinary migration  of  birds  into  Pennsylvania  from  the 
South— The  English  Swallow — Process  of  taming  de- 
scribed by  the  Rev.  W.  Trevelyan— Multitudes  of 
insects  destroyed  by  the  Swallow— Ancient  traditions — 
Singular  medicinal  properties  ascribed  to  the  Swallow — 
The  Wood-Swallow,  or  Be-wowcn  of  the  Aborigines  of 
Western  Australia — Pleasing  habits  of  the  Wood-Swal- 
low, described  by  Mr.  Gould— Its  food  and  general 
character — Season  of  incubation — Form  of  the  nest — 
Color  and  dimensions  of  the  bird — Egg  of  the  White- 
headed  Eagle,  in  the  Zoological  Society's  collection — 


Niagara  a  favorite  resort  of  the  bird — Its  muscular 
power — Wilson's  description  of  its  predatory  habits — 
Franklin's  view  of  the  case — Turkeys  found  by  Cortes 
when  he  invaded  Mexico — The  Eagle's  unceremonious 
treatment  of  the  Vulture — The  nest  of  the  Eagle — In- 
cubation in  captivity — Attachment  of  the  parents  to 
their  young  in  the  wild  state — The  AVedge-tailed 
Eagle — Its  prey — A  Kangaroo-shooting  party — News 
from  Egypt  of  the  Society's  Hippopotamus,  .  .  23 

PART  VI. 

The  Siren  and  its  classic  predecessors — Its  generic  charac- 
ter— Anatomical  account — Description  of  a  male  and 
female — Death  of  the  latter — The  Camel — Its  wonder- 
ful structure — Its  adaptation  to  its  state  of  life — Its 
noiseless  step — The  Baggage-Camel — Altered  form  of 
its  dorsal  vertebrae — The  Dromedary — Its  swiftness  com- 
pared to  that  of  the  high-mettled  racer — A  lover's 
exploit — African  Camel-drivers — Training  of  the  Camel 
— Camel-breeding  at  Pisa — Use  of  the  Camel  in  ancient 
war — Holland's  account,  translated  from  Pliny — An- 
tipathy of  the  Horse  to  the  Camel — Madness  of  the 
Camel — Reason  assigned — Camel  fight — Late  appear- 
ance of  the  Camel  on  the  Roman  arena — Its  medicinal 
properties — Its  regular  mode  of  progression — Manner 
of  training  the  Camel  described  by  old  authors — In- 
stance of  its  cruel  treatment  by  drivers — The  Camel- 
doctors— Diseases  to  which  the  Camel  is  subject — 
Objects  of  interest  in  the  Museum  of  the  College  of 
Surgeons,  in  relation  to  this  animal — Boat  planned 
from  its  remains — The  Pilgrim-caravan — Its  glittering 
array — Construction  and  formation  of  the  Camel,  .  33 

PART  VII. 

Further  remarks  on  the  process  of  incubation  on  the  egg 
of  the  Wedge-tailed  Eagle  by  a  domestic  Hen — Attempt 
by  the  parents  to  destroy  the  eggs — Parental  care  of 
their  young  by  gregarious  quadrupeds — The  Reindeer 
— Fondness  for  its  young — Maternal  affection  of  ani- 
mals of  a  high  grade — Touchingly  instanced  in  the 
case  of  a  she  Bear — Boldness  of  Birds  under  such  cir- 
cumstances— Example  given  by  White — Parental  so- 
licitude of  the  Partridge — Of  the  domestic  Hen — Of  the 
Mare — The  practice  of  hatching  Ducks'  eggs  by  a  Hen 
— Black  Swans  and  their  brood — The  Canada  Geese — 
Their  propensity  to  destroy  the  nestlings  of  other  birds 
— Instanced  by  a  pair  in  St.  James'  Park — The  Gold- 
finch's nest — Perseverance  and  manoeuvring  of  a  Spar- 
row while  nest-building — Anxiety  for  concealment 
manifested  by  birds  generally  in  the  process  of  nidifica- 
tion — The  Ostrich — The  mode  adopted  by  this  bird  of 
hatching  its  eggs — Number  of  eggs  produced — Its  nest 
— A  Hen's  eggs  hatched  by  a  Partridge — The  Brush- 
Turkey — Its  mode  of  egg-hatching — Genera  of  the 
family — A  puzzle  to  systematists — The  bird  described 
— Construction  of  its  nest — Of  nests  generally — Hun- 
ter's experiments  on  the  eggs  of  a  domestic  Hen  in  re- 
lation to  the  eggs  of  the  Brush-Turkey — Gould's  re- 
marks and  experience  on  the  same  subject — Western 
Australian  Pheasant  described — Their  "  nest-mounds  " 
— The  Jungle  Fowl  described — The  Bower-Birds  of 
Australia — Specimens  in  the  Zoological  Gardens — Ar- 
rival there  of  the  Hippopotamus,  the  Thylacines,  and 
the  Snake-charmers, 42 

PART  VIII. 

The  Chlamydera,  or  Spotted  Bower-Bird — Its  range — 
Opinion  of  Mr.  Gould  thereon — Remarkable  plumage — 
The  great  Bower-Bird — Specimen  in  the  Zoological 


IV 


CONTENTS. 


Gardens — Habits,  Ac.,  of  the  Bird — The  Marsupiates,  or 
Purse-Bearers — The  Thylacinus  Cynocephalus,  or  dog- 
faced  Opossum — Specimen  in  the  Zoological  Society's 
Gardens — The  Kangaroo — Professor  Owen's  observa- 
tions and  experiments  upon  this  animal — Remarks 
thereon — Further  account  of  the  Thylacines — Specula- 
tions upon  the  mode  of  reproduction  of  the  ornithorhyn- 
chus  and  echidna — The  Hippopotamus  of  the  Zoological 
Society — Its  organization — Professor  Owen's  account  of 
the  animal  alluded  to — General  appearance  and  habits 
described — Sparrman  and  Mr.  Gumming — The  mode  of 
capture  of  the  Society's  Hippopotamus,  and  account  of 
its  voyage — Its  attendants — General  remarks,  .  .  52 

PART  IX. 

Scriptural  and  classical  allusions  to  Serpents  commented 
upon — Their  bite  and  its  antidote — Snake-charmers — 
Hasselquist's  and  Bruce's  opinions — The  feats  of  the 
Arab  Snake-charmers,  at  the  Zoological  Gardens,  de- 
scribed— The  gift  of  snake-charming  said  to  be  heredi- 
tary— The  Kpughslang,  or  "  Spitting-Snake  " — The  Asi- 
atic form  of  this  genus  of  serpents  described — Taming 
Serpents,  as  related  by  Dr.  Davy— Captain  Knox's 
experience  on  this  subject — Cingalese  veneration  for 
Serpents — Their  legends  concerning  these  reptiles — 
Poison  of  venomous  Serpents;  Dr.  Mead's  opinion  there- 
on— Mr.  Bell's  experiments  in  investigating  the  anat- 
omy of  venomous  Snakes — Case  of  a  carpenter  bitten  by 
one  of  these  reptiles — Similar  instance  given  by  Dr. 
Mead — His  advice  in  such  cases — His  mode  of  curing  a 
Dog — Viper-wine  and  Viper-broth — Remarks  upon  the 
poison  and  its  nature — Authorities  cited — General  re- 
marks,   63 

PART  X. 

Attraction  of  the  reptile-house  in  the  Garden  of  the  Zo- 
ological Society — Fixedness  of  attitude  of  the  reptiles — 
Its  cause  explained — Adaptation  of  color  of  creatures 
in  general  to  their  haunts  instanced  throughout  the 
animal  creation — Effects  of  the  bite  of  a  serpent  upon 
two  dogs — Remedies  adduced — Snakes  in  the  reptile- 
house — Discrepancies  of  Reptile  organization — The 
Land  Tortoise  described — Their  immense  size — Ameri- 
can mode  of  immortalizing  names — Large  Land-Tor- 
toises short-lived  in  England — White's  tortoise;  its 
peculiarities — Redi's  experiments  upon  the  Land-Tor- 
toise— Its  enduring  vitality  instanced — Franklin's  Flies 
— Extraordinary  longevity  of  a  Fly — The  Land,  Marsh, 
River,  and  Sea  Tortoises — General  remarks,  .  .  .76 

PART  XI. 

The  Turtle — Professor  Owen's  observations — Difference 
between  the  Turtle  and  the  Land  Tortoise  defined — The 
Green  Turtle — Chantrey  and  turtle-soup — The  "  Alder- 
man's Walk  " — A  Turtle  feast- — Supper  of  Claudius 
Albinus — Wine-bibbing  propensities  of  the  ancient 
Romans — Use  of  Tortoiseshell  in  Rome — Large  skull 
of  a  Turtle — Remarks  on  the  natural  history  and  cap- 
ture of  Turtles — Sloane's  account  of  a  Turtle  diet — La- 
bat's  opinion  thereon — Mode  of  quieting  Turtles,  to 
avoid  their  bite — Protracted  struggle  between  a  slave 
and  a  Turtle — Mode  of  capture — Pliny's  account  of  it 
— Turtle-divers — A  Turtle-chase — Account  of  the  Re- 


mora — Of  Turtles  and  their  uses — Allusions  and  general 
remarks  in  relation  to  the  Tortoise, 88 

PART  XII. 

Geological  remarks — Fossil  foot-prints — Egyptian  legends 
connected  with  the  form  of  the  Crocodile — Methods  of 
capture — Crocodile-executioners — Ancient  superstitions 
connected  with  the  Crocodile — Sacred  to  the  Egyptians 
— Nature  of  the  Crocodile — Its  protectors — Crocodiles 
destructive  of  the  human  race — Sonnini's  remarks  on 
the  Crocodile — Bait  used  for  taking  it  by  the  ancient 
fishermen-^Crocodiles  and  gladiators — Supposed  medici- 
nal uses  of  the  Crocodile — Peculiarities  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Crocodilian  family — Difference  between  the 
Alligator  and  the  Crocodile — Food  of  the  Alligator — 
Their  mode  of  reproduction — Ravenous  and  ferocious 
disposition — Capture  of  an  Alligator,  as  related  by  Sir 
Hans  Sloane — The  Alligator's  habit  of  swallowing 
stones — General  remarks, 98 

PART  XIII. 

The  Chameleon — Its  habits— Change  of  color,  and  living 
on  air  ;  the  former  well  founded,  the  latter  a  fallacy — 
Hasselquist's  experiments — A  tame  Chameleon— Con- 
clusion as  to  the  principal  agent  in  change  of  color — 
D'Obsonville's  opinion — Structure  and  properties  of  the 
colorific  stratum  of  the  skin — Mechanism  by  which 
changes  of  color  are  effected  in  the  marine  animals 
generally— Form  of  the  Chameleon — Mode  of  taking 
its  prey — Pliny's  account-'— The  Chameleon  eaten  by 
the  Chinese — Supposed  virtue  of  various  parts  of  the 
Reptile — Its  medicinal  properties — The  Viper — Its  or- 
ganization— Mode  of  destroying  the  tribe — Capture  of  a 
Rock-Snake — Its  extraordinary  dimensions — A  Malay 
crushed  to  death  by  a  Serpent — Captain  Stednmn's 
encounter  with  a  Snake — lurcher's  account  of  the  bene- 
fit derived  by  man  from  the  serpent  race— Carver's  in- 
stances of  its  docility — Snake-worship — Serpent-idols  at 
Mexico, 110 

PART  XIV. 

General  remarks  upon  climate — Condition  of  the  Hippo- 
potamus at  the  Society's  Gardens — The  great  Land 
Tortoise  there — Escape  of  the  White  Bear — Its  capture 
— Improvement  suggested  in  keeping  the  Reptiles — 
Serpents  and  their  food — Supposed  virtue  of  the  fat  of 
Serpents — A  negro  bitten  by  a  Serpent — Antidote  for  the 
bite  of  the  deadly  Cobra — Penalty  for  killing  a  Fetish 
Snake — Fascination  of  Serpents  generally  believed  in 
America — A  pet  Toad — Peculiar  formation  of  the  tongue 
of  the  Toad — A  valuable  "  bit  of  its  skeleton  " — Poison- 
ous exudation  from  the  Toad — Dr.  Buckland's  experi- 
ments— The  Zoological  Society's  Reptile-house  on  a 
summer  night — Death  of  the  Land  Tortoises  in  the 
Society's  Gardens — The  Crested  Pigeons  there — Curi- 
ous organization  of  the  Dove  kind — Parrots,  Macaws, 
Ac.;  their  mode  of  feeding  each  other — "Pigeon's 
milk  ; "  the  joke  not  altogether  groundless — Columbidae 
— The  Passenger-Pigeon — Its  power  of  flight— The 
Carrier-Pigeon — Its  derivation — Proneness  to  domesti- 
cation in  the  tame  Pigeon — Breeding-places  in  the 
States  of  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Indiana — Vast  Bights 
of  Pigeons — Fertility  of  the  Dove  kind — Conclusion,  122 


UHI 


LEA  YES 


FROM   THE 


NOTE-BOOK    OF  A    NATURALIST. 


PART    I. 

A  BEAVER*  arrived  in  this  country  in  the  win- 
ter of  1825,  very  young,  being  small  and  woolly, 
and  without  the  covering  of  long  hair  that  marks 
the  adult  animal.  It  was  the  sole  survivor  of  five 
or  six  which  were  shipped  at  the  same  time,  and 
it  was  in  a  very  pitiable  condition,  lean,  and  with 
the  coat  all  clogged  with  pitch  and  tar.  Good 
treatment  quickly  restored  it  to  health ;  it  grew 
a"pace,  plumped  out,  and  the  fur  became  clean  and 
in  good  condition.  Kindness  soon  made  it  famil- 
iar. When  called  by  its  name  "  Binny,"  it  gen- 
erally answered  with  a  little,  low,  plaintive  cry, 
and  came  to  its  owner.  The  hearth-rug  was  its 
favorite  haunt  in  a  winter  evening,  and  thereon  it 
would  lie  stretched  out  at  its  length,  sometimes 
on  its  back,  sometimes  on  its  side,  and  sometimes 
on  its  belly,  expanding  its  webbed  toes  to  secure 
the  full  action  of  a  comfortable  fire  on  them,  but 
always  near  its  master. 

The  building  instinct  showed  itself  early.  Be- 
fore it  had  been  a  week  in  its  new  quarters,  as 
soon  as  it  was  let  out  of  its  cage,  and  materials 
were  placed  in  its  way,  it  immediately  went  to 
work.  Its  strength,  even  before  it  was  half- 
grown,  was  great.  It  would  drag  along  a  large 
sweeping-brush,  or  a  warming-pan,  grasping  the 
handle  with  its  teeth,  so  that  it  came  over  its 
shoulder,  and  advancing  with  the  load  in  an  oblique 
.  direction,  till  it  arrived  at  the  point  where  it  wished 
to  place  it.  The  long  and  large  materials  were 
always  taken  first,  and  two  of  the  longest  were 
generally  laid  crosswise,  with  one  of  the  ends  of 
each  touching  the  wall,  and  the  other  ends  project- 
ing out  into  the  room.  The  area  formed  by  the 
crossed  brushes  and  the  wall  he  would  fill  up  with 
hand-brushes,  rush-baskets,  books,  boots,  sticks, 
clothes,  dried  turf,  or  anything  portable.  As  the 
work  grew  high  he  supported  himself  on  his  tail, 
which  propped  him  up  admirably  ;  and  he  would 

*  Part  of  this  narrative  appeared,  by  the  permission  of 
the  author,  in  The  Gardens  and  Menagerie  of  the  Zoo- 
logical Society  Delineated,  1840  ;  a  highly  interesting  and 
instructive  work. 


often,  after  laying  on  one  of  his  building  materials, 
sit  up  over  against  it,  appearing  to  consider  his 
work,  or,  as  the  country-people  say,  "  judge  it." 
This  pause  was  sometimes  followed  by  changing 
the  position  of  the  material  "judged,"  and  some- 
times it  was  left  in  its  place.  After  he  had  piled 
up  his  materials  in  one  part  of  the  room,  (for  he 
generally  chose  the  same  place,)  he  proceeded  to 
wall  up  the  space  between  the  feet  of  a  chest  of 
drawers  which  stood  at  a  little  distance  from  it, 
high  enough  on  its  legs  to  make  the  bottom  a  roof 
for  him  ;  using  for  this  purpose  dried  turf  and 
sticks,  which  he  laid  very  even,  and  filling  up  the 
interstices  with  bits  of  coal,  hay,  cloth,  or  any- 
thing he  could  pick  up.  This  last  place  he  seemed 
to  appropriate  for  his  dwelling  ;  the  former  work 
seemed  to  be  intended  for  a  dam.  When  he  had 
walled  up  the  space  between  the  feet  of  the  chest 
of  drawers,  he  proceeded  to  carry  in  sticks,  clothes, 
hay,  cotton-wool,  &c.,  and  to  make  a  nest.  When 
he  had  done  this  to  his  satisfaction,  he  would  sit 
up  under  the  drawers  and  comb  himself  with  the 
nails  of  his  hind  feet,  ^n  this  operation,  that 
which  appeared  at  first  to  be  a  malformation  was 
shown  to  be  a  beautiful  adaptation  to  the  necessi- 
ties of  the  animal.  The  huge  webbed  hind-feet 
of  the  beaver  turn  in  so  as  to  give  the  appearance 
of  deformity  ;  but  if  the  toes  were  straight,  instead 
of  being  incurved,  the  animal  could  not  use  them 
so  readily  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  its  fur  in 
order,  and  cleansing  it  from  dirt  and  moisture. 

Binny  generally  carried  small  and  light  articles 
between  his  right  fore-leg  and  his  chin,  walking 
on  the  other  three  legs ;  and  huge  masses,  which 
he  could  not  grasp  readily  with  his  teeth,  he 
pushed  forwards,  leaning  against  them  with  his 
right  fore-paw  and  his  chin.  He  never  carried 
anything  on  his  tail,  which  he  liked  to  dip  in 
water,  but  he  was  not  fond  of  plunging  in  the 
whole  of  his  body.  If  his  tail  was  kept  moist  he 
never  cared  to  drink ;  but  if  it  was  kept  dry  it 
became  hot,  and  the  animal  appeared  distressed, 
and  would  drink  a  great  deal.  It  is  not  impossi- 
ble that  the  tail  may  have  the  power  of  absorbing 
water,  like  the  skin  of  frogs,  though  it  must  be 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


owned  that  the  scaly  integument  which  invests 
that  member  has  not  much  of  the  character  which 
generally  belongs  to  absorbing  surfaces. 

It  has  been  asserted,  and  in  some  degree  proved, 
that  the  song  of  birds  depends  on  that  which  they 
first  hear ;  but  their  nest-making  seems  to  be  the 
result  of  innate  instinct.  Binny  must  have  been 
captured  too  young  to  have  seen  any  of  the  build- 
ing operations  of  his  parents  or  their  co-mates, 
but  his  instinct  impelled  him  to  go  to  work  under 
the  most  unfavorable  circumstances  ;  and  he  busied 
himself  as  earnestly  in  constructing  a  dam,  in  a 
room  up  three  pair  of  stairs  in  London,  as  if  he 
had  been  laying  his  foundation  in  a  stream  or  lake 
in  Upper  Canada. 

Bread,  and  bread  and  milk  and  sugar,  formed 
the  principal  part  of  Binny's  food  ;  but  he  was 
very  fond  of  succulent  fruits  and  roots.  Tender 
twigs,  especially  of  the  willow,  were  greatly  to 
his  taste,  and  he  would  handle  them  very  adroitly, 
drawing  them  through  his  fore-paws,  which  he 
closed  on  them  much  as  a  basket-maker  would 
do  when  trying  a  twig,  though  less  perfectly  of 
course. 

An  animal  so  sociable  in  his  habits  ought  to  be 
affectionate  ;  and  very  affectionate  the  beaver  is 
said  to  be.  Drage  mentions  two  young  ones, 
which  were  taken  alive  and  brought  to  a  neigh- 
boring factory  in  Hudson's  Bay,  where  they 
throve  very  fast  until  one  of  them  was  killed  acci- 
dentally. The  survivor  instantly  felt  the  loss,  began 
to  moan,  and  abstained  from  food  till  it  died.  Mr. 
Bullock  mentioned  to  the  narrator  a  similar  instance 
which  fell  under  his  notice  in  North  America. 
A  male  and  female  were  kept  together  in  a  room, 
where  they  lived  happily  till  the  male  was  deprived 
of  his  partner  by  death.  For  a  day  or  two  he 
appeared  to  be  hardly  aware  of  his  loss,  and  brought 
food  and  laid  it  before  her ;  at  last,  finding  that 
she  did  not  stir,  he  covered  her  body  with  twigs 
and  leaves,  and  was  in^a  pining  state  when  Mr. 
Bullock  lost  sight  of  him. 

With  no  slight  regret  the  writer  adds  a  third 
example  in  the  death  of  his  pet.  The  housekeeper 
was  very  fond  of  Binny,  always  consulting  his 
comfort  and  appetite,  making  his  bed  warm,  and 
treating  him  frequently  to  Sally  Lunns  and  plum- 
cake,  till  he  became  the  most  plump  and  sleek  of 
beavers  ;  and  the  attachment  was  reciprocal.  At 
last,  on  the  writer's  departure  from  London  for 
some  time,  he  thought  that  Binny,  who  had  grown 
excessively  fat,  would  be  the  better  for  exercise  and 
change  of  air,  and  would  be  more  comfortable  if 
sent  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  Tower  of  London  and 
expatiate  there.  Mr.  Cops,  the  keeper  of  the 
lions,  kindly  undertook  to  take  care  of  him.  He 
was  suffered  to  go  at  large,  and  had  every  accom- 
modation, but  soon  began  to  fall  off  in  his  appetite. 
In  vain  did  his  kind  host  try  every  delicacy  to 
tempt  his  guest.  With  the  exception  of  a  few 
raisins  the  dejected  animal  would  eat  nothing,  and 
fell  away  visibly.  Fearing  the  worst,  and  sus- 
pecting that  it  was  pining  for  its  home,  Mr.  Cops 
brought  it  back  to  the  housekeeper.  The  poor 


beaver  immediately  recognized  her,  uttered  his 
little  cry,  and  crept  under  her  chair.  But  the 
blow  had  been  struck ;  he  never  rallied,  but  died, 
as  the  good  old  housekeeper  declared,  with  tears 
in  her  eyes,  of  a  broken  heart.  His  skin  is  pre- 
served in  the  museum  of  the  Bristol  Philosophical 
Society.  Poor  Binny  !  He  was  a  most  faithful 
and  entertaining  creature,  and  some  highly  comic 
scenes  occurred  between  the  worthy  but  slow 
beaver,  and  a  light  and  airy  macauco  that  was 
kept  in  the  same  apartment. 

The  macauco  was  a  white-fronted  lemur,*  and 
was  presented  to  the  writer  by  the  late  Captain 
Marryat,  R.  N.  From  the  excessive  agility  of 
this  sprightly  creature  his  master  named  him 
"  Monsieur  Mazurier,"  to  which  name,  and  also 
to  that  of  "  Macky,"  he  would  answer  by  a  satis- 
factory grunting  noise.  His  bounds  were  won- 
derful. From  a  table  he  would  spring  twenty  or 
thirty  feet  to  the  upper  angle  of  an  open  door,  and 
then  back  again  to  the  table  or  his  master's  shoul- 
der, light  as  a  fairy.  In  his  leaps,  his  tail  seemed 
to  act  as  a  kind  of  balancing  pole,  and  the  elastic 
cushions  at  the  end  of  his  fingers  enabled  him  to 
pitch  so  lightly  that  his  descent  was  hardly  felt 
when  he  bounded  on  you.  He  would  come  round 
the  back  of  his  master's  neck,  and  rub  his  tiny 
head  fondly  against  his  master's  face  or  ear,  and, 
after  a  succession  of  fondlings  and  little  gruntings, 
descend  to  his  master's  instep,  as  he  sat  cross- 
legged  before  the  fire,  when  he  would  settle  him- 
self down  thereon,  wrap  his  tail  around  him  like 
a  boa,  and  go  to  sleep.  When  in  his  cage  he 
generally  slept  on  his  perch,  rolled  up,  with  his 
head  downwards  and  his  tail  comfortably  wrapped 
over  all.  If  a  piece  of  orange  was  given  to  him 
he  would  lift  the  fruit  to  his  mouth  and  throw 
back  his  head,  so  as  to  secure  the  juice,  not  a  drop 
of  which  was  lost.  He  was  very  ibnd  of  sparkling 
champagne,  and  after  such  a  treat,  his  friskings 
and  playful  tricks  were  beyond  description  funny. 
His  game  of  romps  with  Binny  was  most  ludicrous. 
Often,  while  Monsieur  Mazurier  was  seated  on  his 
master's  instep,  the  bell  was  rung  for  Binny,  who 
entered  as  rapidly  as  his  shuffling  gait  would  per- 
mit him,  immediately  came  close  to  his  master's 
leg,  uttered  his  little  cry,  and  caressed  the  leg, 
after  his  fashion,  by  rubbing  the  side  of  his  head 
and  his  nose  against  it.  Presently  he  would,  per- 
ceive Macky,  whom  he  would  awake,  and  endeavor 
to  seduce  him  to  play  by  prancing  and  shuffling 
before  him.  Macky,  nothing  loath,  would  make  a 
spring  on  Binny's  tail  and  bound  off  in  an  instant. 
Upon  which  Binny  would  shuffle  and  prance, 
shake  his  head,  and  play  wonderful  antics.  People 
may  talk  of  the  gambols  of  a  rhinoceros,  but  the 
gambols  of  the  rodent  threw  those  of  the  pachy- 
derm into  the  shade,  beating  them  hollow  in  un- 
couthness  and  absurdity.  Macky  would  bound  on 
Binny's  back,  dance  a  kind  of  saraband  upon  him, 
and  then  leap  before  him,  upon  which  Binny 
would  charge  the  dancer  with  the  most  determined 
heavy  alacrity.  Macky  was  over  his  head  and 
*  Lemur  aJbifrons. 


LEAVES   FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF   A   NATURALIST. 


skipping  on  his  great,  flat,  scaly  tail  in  a  second. 
Then  Binny  would  shake  his  head,  wheel  round 
like  a  ponderous  wagon,  and,  by  the  time  he  had 
brought  his  head  where  his  tail  was,  Macky  had 
bounded  from  the  tables  and  chairs  on  and  off  him 
twenty  times.  Binny  at  last  would  slap  his  tail 
again  and  again  against  the  floor  till  he'made  all 
ring,  whereupon  Mack'y  would  dance  round  him, 
and  cut  the  most  extravagant  capers,  touching 
Binny's  tail  with  his  finger  and  jumping  away  as 
quick  as  thought. 

They  had  evidently  a  good  understanding  with 
each  other,  and  were  on  the  best  terms.  One  day 
they  were  left  al  large  in  a  room  together,  where 
there  was  a  linen  press,  the  •  doors  of  which  had 
been  left  open.  Macky  climbed  the  doors,  ran- 
sacked the  press,  pulled  out  the  sheets,  table- 
cloths, &c.,  and  threw  them  down  to  the  beaver, 
who,  jpving  made  a  most  luxurious  bed,  laid  him- 
self down  thereon  ;  and  when  the  room  was  en- 
tered Macky  and  Binny  were  found  fast  asleep, 
the  former  with  his  head  and  shoulders  pillowed 
upon  Binny's  comfortable  neck.  When  Binny 
died,  his  master  determined  to  have  no  more  sor- 
rowing for  pets,  and  sent  Macky  to  the  Zoological 
Society's  garden,  in  the  Regent's  Park,  where 
they  got  him  a  wife,  with  whom  he  lived  long 
and  happily. 

The  two  beavers  which  were  in  that  garden 
when  the  writer  gave  the  late  lamented  Mr.  Ben- 
nett permission  to  print  the  account  of  his  domesti- 
cated beaver,  were  sent  to  the  society  from  Canada 
by  Lord  Dalhousie.  They  were  partially  deprived 
of  sight  before  their  arrival  in  this  country  ;  but 
one  of  them  had  the  use  of  one  eye  ;  and  the  other, 
although  totally  blind,  dived  most  perseveringly 
for  clay!  and  applied  it  to  stop  up  every  cranny  in 
their  common  habitation  that  could  admit  "  the 
winter's  flaw."  They  lived  some  time  together, 
apparently  happy  and  contented. 


GREAT  as  have  been  the  advantages  of  menage- 
ries, in  bringing  immediately  under  the  eyes  of 
every  observer  animals  which  would  otherwise  be 
hardly  known  except  from  books,  or  from  their 
remains  preserved  in  museums,  they  have,  it  must 
be  confessed,  been  fatal  to  romance.  The  exag- 
gerated proportions  which  travellers  have  assigned 
to  birds  and, beasts — ay,  and  men — partly  from 
seeing  the  objects  at  a  distance,  and  partly  from 
the  highly-colored  and,  in  many  instances,  imper- 
fectly understood  accounts  of  the  natives,  shrink 
when  the  living  creature  is  before  the  spectator. 
In  such  cases,  truth — like  the  best  pictures  of  the 
Italian  masters,  which  are  not  satisfactory  at  first, 
especially  to  those  who  have  admired  the  extrava- 
gances, however  poetical,  of  a  Fuseli — looks 
poorly  ;  and  it  is  only  after  consideration  that  the 
mind  becomes  reconciled  to  the  light,  before  which 
errors  and  false  pretensions  vanish. 

How  many,  who  have  read  of  the  condor  till  he 
has  been  almost  magnified  into  the  roc  of  Arabian 
story,  have  been  disappointed  at  the  first  sight  of 


those  birds  which  have  been  kept  so  long  at  the 
garden  of  the  Zoological  Society  of  London  !  I 
can  hardly  call  to  mind  one  who  has  so  seen  them 
in  my  presence  whose  expectations  had  not  gone 
far  beyond  what  he  then  saw.  To  say  nothing 
of  more  general  romantic  statements,  eighteen  feet 
have  been  given  as  the  actual  measurement  across 
the  expanded  wings  of  the  great  vulture  of  the 
Andes.  The  old  male  belonging  to  the  society,  a 
very  fine  specimen,  measures  eleven  feet  from  tip. 
to  tip  when  his  wings  are  outstretched  ;  his  length 
does  not  exceed  four  feet  nine  inches.  Both  he 
and  his  partner,  notwithstanding  their  confinement 
— a  confinement  which  must  be  peculiarly  irksome 
and  unnatural  to  a  bird,  the  greater  portion  of 
whose  free  life  is  spent  on  the  wing,  sailing  in 
the  higher  regions  of  the  atmosphere,  far  above 
the  throne  of  clouds  of  the 

Giant  of  the  western  star, 

appear  to  enjoy  good  health,  proofs  of  which  have 
been  given  in  their  attempts  to  continue  the  spe- 
cies, notwithstanding  their  unfavorable  situation. 

In  a  state  of  nature,  the  eggs  of  the  condor  are 
said  to  rest  on  the  rock,  without  stick  or  straw, 
and  unprotected  by  any  border.  There,  at  an  ele- 
vation of  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  sea,  on  such  ledges  and  plateaux 
as  "  The  Condor's  Look-out,"  "  The  Condor's 
Nest,"  "The  Condor's  Roost,"  the  nestling  first 
breathes  the  highly  rarefied  air.  A  year  elapses, 
it  is  asserted,  before  the  downy  young  one  is  suffi- 
ciently plumed  to  leave  the  mother.  About  the 
end  of  the  second  year,  the  color  is  a  yellowish 
brown,  and,  up  to  this  time,  the  gallila  or  ruff  IB 
not  visible,  whence  probably  arises  the  notion  that 
there  are.  two  species  of  condors,  one  black,  (the 
color  of  the  adult,)  and  one  brown.  Flying  to  a 
more  lofty  pitch  than  any  other  bird,  and  reduced 
in  the  sight  of  the  upward  gazer,  amid  the  grand 
and  gigantic  scenery,  to  the  size  of  hawks,  they 
wheel  round,  keeping  their  telescopic  eyes  on  the 
valleys,  watching  for  the  fall  of  some  failing 
horse  or  cow.  Then  down  come  the  condors  to 
the  feast.  In  their  daintiness  they  generally 
begin  with  the  tongue  and  the  eyes,  but  the  rage 
of  a  hunger  sharpened  by  days  of  watching  on 
the  wing,  in  the  eager  air  of  a  very  high  altitude, 
is  not  easily  appeased.  The  bird,  rioting  in  the 
midst  of  the  plentiful  table  which  death  has  spread 
for  it  in  the  wilderness,  after  tearing  up  the  hide 
with  its  trenchant  beak,  carves  out  and  swallows 
gobbet  after  gobbet,  till  it  is  so  gorged  as  to  be 
unable  to  raise  itself  on  the  wing.  This  the 
Indians  well  know,  and  when  they  have  a  mind 
for  a  battue  they  set  forth  a  dead  horse  or  cow, 
and  quietly  watch  the  progress  of  the  repast, 
which  is  sure  to  be  attended  by  the  condors,  some 
of  them  being  almost  always  on  their  walch  far 
aloft.  When  they  are  well  gorged,  and  looking 
on  each  other  with  gluttonous  gravity,  the  Indiana 
make  their  appearance  with  the  deadly  lasso. 
Then  comes  a  scene  of  excitement,  gladdening  the 
heart  of  the  sportsman  only  a  degree  less  than  the 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


stimulating  bull-fight.  The  lassos  are  thrown 
with  more  or  less  success.  Some  are  fast,  others 
contrive  to  scramble  away  ;  but  when  a  condor  is 
caught,  there  is  a  fight,  and  a  stout  one,  before  it 
is  killed  ;  and,  indeed,  the  stories  told  of  its  te- 
nacity of  life  would  be  incredible  were  they  not 
attested  by  trustworthy  witnesses. 

Humboldt  shall  be  called  to  make  out  a  strong 
case.  He  was  present  when  the  Indians  tried  to 
overcome  the  vitality  of  one  which  they  had  taken 
alive.  Having  strangled  it  with  a  lasso,  they 
hanged  it  on  a  tree,  pulling  it  forcibly  by  the  feet 
for  several  minutes,  in  a  manner  that  would  have 
done  credit  to  Mr.  Calcraft  and  his  assistants. 
The  execution  being  apparently  over,  the  lasso 
was  removed  ;  the  bird  got  up  and  walked  about 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  A  pistol  was  then 
fired  at  it,  the  man  who  fired  standing  within  less 
than  four  paces.  Three  balls  hit  the  living  mark, 
wounding  it  in  the  neck,  chest,  and  abdomen  ;  the 
bird  kept  its  legs.  A  fourth  ball  broke  its  thigh. 
Then  the  condor  fell,  but  it  did  not  die  of  its 
wounds  till  half  an  hour  had  elapsed.  This  bird 
was  preserved  by  M.  Bonpland.  Such  direct  and 
unimpeachable  evidence  should  make  us  pause 
before  we  hastily  discredit  the  accounts  of  older 
writers.  Ulloa  was  thought  to  have  used  a 
traveller's  privilege  when  he  asserted,  that  in  the 
colder  localities  of  Peru  the  condor  is  so  closely 
protected  by  its  feathery  armor,  that  eight  or  ten 
balls  might  be  heard  to  strike  without  penetrating, 
or,  at  least,  bringing  down  the  bird. 

Not  that  we  give  credence  to  the  stories  of 
the  condor's  carrying  off  children ;  indeed,  the  evi- 
dence is  against  such  a  statement ;  and  still  less 
do  we  believe  the  accounts  of  their  attacking  men 
and  women.  At  all  events.  Sir  Francis  Head  has 
proved  that  a  Cornish  miner  is  a  match  for  one  of 
these  great  vultures.  Humboldt  allows  that  two 
of  them  would  be  dangerous  foes  when  opposed  to 
one  man ;  but  he  frequently  came  within  ten  or 
twelve  feet  of  a  rock  on  which  three  or  four  of 
them  were  perched,  and  they  never  offered  to  mo- 
lest him.  Indeed,  the  Alpine  lammergeyer,*  the 
Phene  of  Aristotle  and  ^Elian,  is  little  inferior, 
if  not  equal,  to  the  condor  in  size,  and,  like  the 
condor,  haunts  great  mountain  chains.  As  the 
condor  is  the  great  vulture  of  the  New  World, 
this  vulture-eagle  holds  its  throne  on  the  lofty 
precipices  of  the  old  continent.  On  the  Swiss 
and  German  Alps,  from  Piedmont  to  Dalmatia, 
in  the  Pyrenees,  in  the  mountains  of  Ghilan  and 
Siberia,  of  Egypt  and  Abyssinia,  this,  the  largest 
of  the  European  birds  of  prey,  is  on  the  watch 
to  scourge  the  country.  With  more  of  the  eagle 
than  the  vulture  in  its  composition,  and  with 
claws  more  fit  for  rapine  than  the  nails  of  the 
condor,  it  generally  seeks  for  a  living  prey, 
and,  soaring  with  its  mate  above  the  hills  and 
valleys,  pounces  upon  the  lambs  and  other  quad- 
rupeds. The  stories  of  its  having  carried  off 
children  in  its  crooked  talons  wear  a  much  greater 
air  of  probability  than  such  tales  when  applied  to 

*  Gypaetus  barbatus,  Storr. 


the  condor,  with  its  comparatively  impotent  foot. 
The  strength  of  the  lammergeyer  and  its  con- 
formation are  quite  equal  to  such  murderous  acts  ; 
for  a  full  grown  one  is  four  feet  from  beak  to  tail, 
and  nine  or  ten  in  alar  extent.  But  the  lammer- 
geyer contents  itself  with  a  dead  prey  when  no 
better  may  be  had,  and  Bruce  gives  an  anecdote 
of  its  pertinacity  and  audacity  on  one  of  these 
occasions  so  graphically,  that  it  would  be  unjust  to 
the  reader  to  give  it  in  other  than  the  slandered 
Abyssinian  traveller's  own  words  : — 

Upon  the  highest  top  of  the  mountain  Lamalmon, 
while  the  servants  were  refreshing  themselves  from 
that  toilsome,  rugged  ascent,  and  enjoying  the 
pleasure  of  a  most  delightful  climate,  eating  their 
dinner  in  the  outer  air,  with  several  large  dishes 
of  boiled  goat's  flesh  before  them,  this  enemy,  as 
he  turned  out  to  be  to  them,  appeared  suddenly. 
He  did  not  stoop  rapidly  from  a  height,  but  came 
flying  slowly  along  the  ground,  and  sat  down  close 
to  the  meat,  within  the  ring  the  men  had  made 
round  it.  A  great  shout,  or  rather  cry  of  distress. 
called  me  to  the  place.  I  saw  the  eagle  stand  for 
a  minute,  as  if  to  recollect  himself,  while  the 
servants  ran  for  their  lances  and  shields.  I  walked 
up  as  near  to  him  as  I  had  time  to  do.  His  atten- 
tion was  fully  fixed  upon  the  flesh.  I  saw  him  put 
his  foot  into  the  pan,  where  was  a  large  piece  in 
water,  prepared  for  boiling ;  but  finding  the  smart 
which  he  had  not  expected,  he  withdrew  it,  and 
forsook  this  piece  which  he  held. 

There  were  two  large  pieces,  a  leg  and  a  shoul- 
der, lying  upon  a  wooden  platter  ;  into  these  he 
trussed  both  his  claws,  and  carried  them  off;  but  I 
thought  he  looked  wistfully  at  the  large  piece 
which  remained  in  the  warm  water.  Away  he 
went  slowly  along  the  ground  as  he  had  come. 
The  face  of  the  cliff  over  which  criminals  are 
thrown  took  him  from  our  sight.  The  Mahomet- 
ans that  drove  the  asses,  who  had  suffered  from  the 
hyaena,  were  much  alarmed,  and  assured  me  of  his 
return.  My  servants,  on  the  other  hand,  very 
unwillingly  expected  him,  and  thought  he  had 
already  more  than  his  share. 

As  I  had  myself  a  desire  of  more  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  him,  I  loaded  a  rifle  gun  with  ball, 
and  sat  down  close  to  the  platter  by  the  meat.  It 
was  not  many  minutes  before  he  came,  and  a  pro- 
digious shout  was  raised  by  my  attendants,  "  He 
is  coming!  he  is  coming!"  enough  to  have  dis- 
couraged a  less  courageous  animal.  Whether  he 
was  not  quite  so  hungry  as  at  first,  or  suspected 
something  from  my  appearance,  I  know  not,  but  he 
made  a  small  turn,  and  sat  down  about  ten  yards 
from  me,  the  pan  with  the  meat  being  between  me 
and  him.  As  the  field  was  clear  before  me,  and  I 
did  not  know  but  his  next  move  might  bring  him 
opposite  to  one  of  my  people,  and  so  that  he  might 
actually  get  the  rest  of  the  meat  and  make  off,  I 
shot  him  with  the  ball  through  the  middle  of  his 
body,  about  two  laches  below  the  wing,  so  that  he 
lay  down  upon  the  grass  without  a  single  flutter. 

Bruce  gives  the  following  dimensions  of  this 
daring  bird  : — 

From  wing  to  wing  he  was  eight  feet  four 
inches  ;  from  the  tip  of  his  tail  to  the  point  of  his 
beak,  when  dead,  four  feet  seven  inches ;  he 
weighed  twenty-two  pounds,  and  was  very  full  of 
flesh. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


5 


But  return  we  to  our  condor.  It  affords  preg- 
nant evidence  of  the  care  and  attention  exerted  by 
the  authorities  and  keepers  of  the  animals  con- 
fined in  the  garden  of  the  Zoological  Society  of 
London  in  the  Regent's  Park,  when  we  find  that 
so  many  of  them  have  not  only  shown  a  disposi- 
tion to  breed  in  their  captivity,  but  that  not  a  few 
have  actually  reared  healthy  offspring  under  all 
the  disadvantages  which  a  life  so  different  from 
that  intended  by  Nature  must,  under  any  circum- 
stances, produce.  Some  of  these  instances,  if  our 
notes  find  favor  in  your  eye,  dear  reader,  will  be 
hereafter  given.  At  present,  we  beg  attention  to 
one  where,  with  every  wish  to  continue  the  spe- 
cies, the  parents  seemed  to  give  up  incubation  as 
hopeless. 

At  the  time  the  present  note  was  taken  the 
female  condor  in  the  Regent's  Park  had  laid  seven 
eggs.  The  first  was  laid  on  the  4th  of  March, 

1844  ;    the  second  on  the  29th  of  April  of  the 
same  year  ;  the  third  on   the   28th  of  February, 

1845  ;  the   fourth   on  the  24th  of  April  in  that 
year  ;   the  fifth  on  the  8th  of  February,  1846  ;  the 
sixth  on  the  3rd  of  April,  1846  ;   and  the  seventh 
on  the  7th  of  May,  1847. 

On  one  occasion,  I  saw  the  condors  with  a 
newly-laid  white  egg,  some  three  or  four  inches 
long,  lying  on  the  naked  floor  of  their  prison. 
There  was  no  appearance  of  a  nest  of  any  kind, 
and  there  was  something  melancholy  and  yet 
ludicrous  in  the  hopeless  expression  with  which 
both  the  parents  looked  down  at  it.  They 
regarded  the  egg  and  then  each  other,  as  if  they 
would  have  said,  if  they  could,  "  What  are  we  to 
do  with  it  now  we  have  got  it?"  And  the  mute 
mutual  answer  of  their  forlorn  eyes  and  dejected 
heads  was,  evidently,  "  Nothing." 

Well,  at  last,  it  was  proposed  that,  as  soon  as 
another  egg  was  laid,  it  should  be  placed  under  a 
hen.  Accordingly,  on  the  7th  of  May,  at  half- 
past  seven  o'clock,  A.  M.,  (I  must  be  pardoned  for 
being  somewhat  particular  on  such  an  occasion,) 
the  newly -laid  egg  was  put  under  a  good  motherly 
looking  nurse  of  the  Dorking  breed,  and,  as  the 
colors  of  hens  as  well  as  of  horses  are  worthy 
of  note,  let  it  be  remembered  that  her  color  was 
white,  inclining  to  buff. 

The  place  of  incubation  was  a  cage  elevated 
some  distance  above  the  floor  in  one  of  the 
aviaries.  The  hen  sat  very  close.  Day  after 
day,  week  after  week,  passed  away ;  still  the  ex- 
cellent nurse  continued  to  sit.  Day  after  day, 
week  after  week,  again  rolled  on,  and  the  usual 
period  at  which  the  anxious  feathered  mother 
beholds  her  natural  offspring  was  left  far  behind. 
Still  the  good  nurse  sat  on,  till  at  last  after  an 
incubation  of  fifty-four  days,  the  young  condor,  on 
the  30th  of  June,  1846,  about  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  began  to  break  the  wall  of  its  procreant 
prison.  The  process  of  hatching  was  very  slow. 
The  young  bird  was  not  extricated  from  the  egg 
until  after  twenty-seven  hours,  nor  was  it  then 
released — on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  July — 


without  the  assistance  of  the  keeper,  who  found 
it  necessary  to  remove  the  shell,  as  the  membrane 
had  got  dry  round  the  nestling.  Thus  came  into 
this  best  of  all  possible  worlds  the  first  condor 
hatched  in  England.  It  had  an  odd  appearance, 
and  seemed  to  wonder  how  it  had  got  here.  The 
head  appeared  to  be  misshapen,  for  on  the  top  of  it 
was  what  looked  like  an  amorphous  bladder  of  water 
contained  between  the  external  skin  and  the  skull. 
This  gradually  disappeared,  and  when  I  first  saw 
it,  on  the  same  first  of  July,  about  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  the  head  was  properly  shaped. 
It  was  naked,  and  of  a  dark  lead  color  ;  and  such 
was  the  hue  of  the  just  visible  comb  (showing 
that  it  was  a  male)  and  of  the  naked  feet.  With 
these  exceptions  the  young  bird  was  covered  with 
a  dirty  white  down,  and  looked  healthy  and  vigor- 
ous. On  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  it  was 
hatched  it  ate  part  of  the  liver  of  a  young  rabbit. 

The  young  condor  was  fed  five  times  each  day 
with  the  fleshy  parts  of  young  rabbits  ;  at  each 
feed  a  piece  about  the  size  of  a  walnut  was  given, 
and  it  was  very  fond  of  the  liver.  For  the  first 
ten  days  it  was  fed,  and  after  that  time  it  pecked 
the  food  from  the  hand  of  the  keeper.  It  took, 
no  water,  nor  was  any  forced  on  it. 

I  find,  also,  the  following  in  my  note-book;: — 

July  18. — The  young  condor  continues  tolhrive 
apace,  and  the  good  hen  that  hatched-  the  egg 
from  which  this  portentous  chick  sprung  still  re- 
mains in  the  elevated  cage,  and  seems  very  much 
attached  to  her  charge.  When  feeding — for 
which  purpose  she  quits  the  nestling  only  twice 
a  day,  hurrying  back  as  if  anxious  to  resume  her 
duty — she  is  fussy  and  fidgety  (if  there  be  such 
words)  till  her  hasty  meals  are  ended.  The 
young  condor's  down  is  now  changed  to  a  more 
gray  hue,  and  the  germs  of  the  true  feathers  begin 
to  show  themselves.  The  head  and  neck  have 
become  blacker,  and  the  budding  excrescence  of 
the  comb  advances.  The  upper  mandible  of  the 
bill  is  slightly  movable.  The  lower  extremities 
are  become  darker  and  very  stout,  but  as  yet  too 
weak  to  support  the  bird's  weight. 

May  not  this  local,  but  no  doubt  natural  weak- 
ness, point  to  the  solution  of  the  continued  close 
attention  of  the  hen!  Her  duty  with  her  own 
eggs  is  to  hatch  chickens  that  run  very  soon  after 
they  have  left  the  egg-shell,  but  till  they  are 
strong  enough  to  be  able  to  trust  to  their  lower 
extremities  she  keeps  them  close,  "  hiving  them," 
as  the  old  wives  say,  carefully,  till  these  lower 
extremities,  which  are,  in  the  nestlings  of  the 
gallinaceous  tribe,  first  well  developed,  shall  be 
sufficiently  strong  to  carry  them  in  search  of  food 
and  out  of  danger.  The  hen,  in  this  instance, 
finds  that  her  Garagantua  of  a  chick  cannot  walk, 
and  therefore  goes  on  cherishing  it  and  sitting' 
close  over  it.  I  saw  it  fed  about  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  upon  part  of  a  young  rabbit,  nearly 
the  whole  of  which  it  had  consumed  in  the  course 
of  yesterday  and  to-day.  When  brought  out  it 
shivered  its  callow  wings  and  opened  its  mouth 


6 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


like  other  nestlings,  but  it  then  uttered  no  cry. 
It  made  much  use  of  the  tongue  in  taking  the  food 
and  in  deglutition. 

On  my  return  from  making  these  observations  I 
went  to  look  at  the  old  condors.  Military  bands 
were  playing,  and  the  wind  was  very  high.  Both 
birds  were  very  much  excited,  the  male  espec- 
ially. He  spread  and  flapped  his  wings,  pursuing 
the  female,  as  she  walked  backwards  from  him, 
with  his  beak  opposite  and  close  to  hers,  and  ges- 
ticulating vehemently  and  oddly. 

The  next  entry  is  a  sad  one  : — 

July  21,  1846. — The  young  condor,  after  thriv- 
ing well  to  all  appearance,  died  this  morning. 
The  good  hen,  which  had  been  most  attentive  to 
it  to  the  last,  seemed  to  miss  it  much.  The  cry 
of  the  young  condor  resembled  the  squeak  of  a  rat, 
and  the  dwelling-place  of  the  hen  and  her  charge 
was  infested  by  those  predacious  rodents.  Some- 
times they  would  squeak,  and  then  the  bereaved 
foster-mother  would  approach  the  hole  whence  the 
•squeak  proceeded,  listen,  and  abide  there  clucking, 
ras  if  in  hope  of  seeing  her  charge  come  forth. 

In  this  case  I  was  struck  with  the  modification 
•  of  instinct,  or  rather  of  the  adjunct  of  something 
closely  resembling  a  reasoning  power,  on  the  part 
of  the  Hen.  In  general,  as  soon  as  the  days  of 
'her  incubation  are  fulfilled  the  hen  leaves  the  nest, 
if  the  eggs  are  addled,  or  have  not  been  hatched 
from  some  other  cause.  But  here  she  continued 
'to  sit  more  than  double  the  usual  time  without 
moving  except  for  the  purpose  of  taking  food. 
'Might  it  not  be  that  she  felt  that  life  was  in  prog- 
ress under  her,  and  that  her  cnogyr)  (storge)  pre- 
vailed with  her  not  to  abandon  the  embryo  till  the 
•fulness  of  its  time  was  come  1* 

Again  I  observed  that  she  made  no  attempt  to 
-solicit  the  young  condor  to  feed,  as  hens  do  with 

*  "  We  cannot  but  Admire  with  Harvey,"  says  Willugh- 
by,  "  Borne  of  these  natural  instincts  of  birds,  viz.,  that 
almost  all  hen-birds  should,  with  such  diligence  and  pa- 
tience, sit  upon  their  nests  night  and  day  for  a  long  time 
i  together,  macerating  and  almost  starving  themselves  to 
death  ;  that  they  should  expose  themselves  to  such  dan- 
gers in  defence  of  their  eggs  ;  and  if,  being  constrained, 
•they  sometimes  leave  them  a  little  while,  with  such  ear- 
•nestness  hasten  back  to  them  and  cover  them.  Ducks  and 
^eese,  while  they  are  absent  for  a  little  while,  diligently 
cover  up  their  eggs  with  straw.  With  what  courage  and 
magnanimity  do  even  the  most  cowardly  birds  defend  their 
reggs,  which  sometimes  are  subventaneous  and  addle,  or 
not  their  own,  or  even  artificial  ones  !  Stupendous  in 
truth  is  the  love  of  birds  to  a  dull  and  lifeless  egg,  and 
which  is  not  likely  with  the  least  profit  or  pleasure  to 
recompense  so  great  pains  and  care.  Who  can  but  admire 
.the  passionate  affection,  or  rather  fury,  of  a  clucking  hen, 
which  cannot  be  extinguished  unless  she  be  drenched  in 
•cold  water  1  During  this  impetus  of  .mind,  she  neglects 
•.•all  things,  and,  as  if  she  were  in  a  frenzy,  lets  down  her 
wings,  and  bristles  up  her  feathers,  and  walks  up  and 
down  reckless  and  querulous,  puts  other  hens  off  their 
nests,  searching  everywhere  for  eggs  to  sit  upon  ;  neither 
•doth  she  give  over  till  she  hath  either  found  eggs  to  sit  or 
chickens  to  bring  up  ;  which  she  doth,  with  wonderful 
zeal  and  passion,  call  together,  cherish,  feed,  and  defend. 
What  a  pretty  ridiculous  spectacle  is  it  to  see  a  hen  fol- 
Jowing  a  bastard  brood  of  young  ducklings  (which  she 
hath  hatched  for  her  own)  swimming  in  the  water  !  How 
she  often  compasses  the  place,  sometimes  venturing  in,  not 
without  danger,  as  far  as  she  can  wade,  and  calls  upon 
them,  using  all  her  art  and  industry  to  allure  them  to 
her !'» 


their  own  chickens.  She  seemed  to  regard  it  as 
something  incomprehensible,  but  belonging  to  her  ; 
and  looked  on  with  evident  complacency  when  the 
keeper  took  it  out  to  feed  it  on  raw  flesh,  receiv- 
ing it,  after  its  meal,  under  her  wings  with  a 
comfortable  cluck. 

It  is  a  well-known  aphorism  that  the  more  per- 
fect the  order  of  the  animal  is,  the  larger  is  the 
size  of  its  offspring  when  it  first  enters  into  life. 
Thus,  as  John  Hunter  observes,  a  new-born  quad- 
ruped is  nearer  to  the  size  of  the  parents  than  a 
bird  just  hatched,  and  a  bird  nearer  than  a  fish. 
Something  may  be,  therefore,  attributed  to  the 
disproportioned  bulk  of  the  young  condor;  but 
true  as  the  maxim  is,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
parent  has  the  power  of  distinguishing  size.  In 
birds  such  a  power  probably  does  not  exist ;  for 
we  know  that  the  hedge-sparrow  and  oilier  small 
birds  will  go  on  feeding  the  enormous  young 
cuckoo  till  the  poor  benevolent  dupes  are  almost 
exhausted,  before  and  after  the  intruder  has  shoul- 
dered out  their  own  eggs  and  little  nestlings. 

The  sigot  of  the  helpless  young  condor  could 
not  fail  to  raise  reflections '  in  the  most  unobserv- 
ing.  There  was  the  comparatively  minute  form, 
which,  if  its  life  had  been  spared,  would  have 
been  developed  to  gigantic  proportions  ;  and  that 
little,  feeble,  plumeless  wing,  was  formed  to  bear 
quill-feathers  from  two  to  three  feet  in  length. 
These  noble  quills  are  used  as  pens  in  the  Cordil- 
lera ;  and  in  this  country  I  have  seen  them  trans- 
formed into  floats  for  the  angler,  of  a.  size  and 
finish  to  satisfy  the  most  fastidious  dandy  disciple 
of  good  honest  Izaak  Walton. 

Two  other  raptorial  birds  come  into  the  group, 
though  one  of  them,  the  California  vulture,  wants 
the  caruncle  which  distinguishes  the  condor.  The 
other  is  the  king  of  the  vultures.*  The  brilliant 
colors  of  the  head  and  neck  of  this  last  project  it 
upon  the  notice  of  the  visitor  who  passes  the  place 
of  its  confinement ;  and  there  is  reason  for  believ- 
ing that  the  stories  told  of  the  oilier  vultures,  in 
their  free  and  natural  state,  standing  respectfully 
aloof  till  their  king  has  finished  his  repast,  are 
not  groundless,  the  respect  being  probably  due  to 
the  superior  courage  of  the  monarch. 

Of  the  condors,  two  males  and  one  female  are 
now  alive  in  the  garden  of  the  society ;  but  no 
egg  has  been  laid  since  that  whose  history  we 
have  attempted  to  give  was  deposited. 

In  the  same  garden  the  king  vulture — this  looks 
very  like  poor  dear  Theodore  Hook's  story  of  the 
cock  maccaw's  laying  eggs — has  laid,  but  it  never 
sat.  The  Chinese  vulture  has  done  the  same,  but 
never  attempted  incubation.  The  wedge-tailed 
eagle  of  New  Holland,  and  the  Kimmergeyer 
sighing  for  her  mate  and  her  mountains,  have 
dropped  eggs,  but  never  attempted  incubation. 
The  eagle  owlf  entered  upon  the  business  of  the 
continuation  of  the  species  with  greater  energy 
and  gravity.  She  laid  and  sat,  but  sat  in  vain  ; 
not  an  owlet  rewarded  her  anxiety. 

*  Or,  King  Vulture — Sarooramphus  Papa — Vultur  Pa- 
pa, Linn, 
t  Strii  Bubo. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


The  white-headed  eagles  seemed  very  much  in 
earnest.  Of  them  the  reader  may  know  more 
hereafter,  if  he  should  choose  to  kill  time  by  tak- 
ing up  a  continuation  of  these  notes. 

This,  we  are  told,  is  a  world  of  compensation, 
though  the  compensation  is  too  often  terribly  on 
one  side,  as  in  the  often-repeated  case  of  English- 
men being  called  upon  to  pay  for  "  the  vested 
interests  "  of  a  nuisance  that  would  not  be  tolerated 
for  three  months  in  any  city  of  civilized  Europe 
except  London — Smithfield  Market,  for  instance. 
But  still  this  best  of  all  possible  worlds  is  a  world 
of  compensation.  In  obedience  to  this  law,  Mr. 
Yarrell,  in  his  excellent  History  of  British  Birds, 
has  recorded  a  most  interesting  account  of  a  buz- 
zard *  hatching  chickens,  in  order,  no  doubt,  to 
balance  the  fact  of  a  hen  hatching  a  condor. 

A  solitary  male  buzzard  in  our  time  made  des- 
perate love  to  the  shoe  of  the  gardener  of  the 
Physic  Garden  at  Oxford,  with  the  gardener's  foot 
in  the  said  shoe ;  but  Mr.  Yarrell's  story  relates 
to  the  gentler  sex,  and  he  prefaces  it  with  an  ob- 
servation as  to  the  extreme  partiality  of  the  com- 
mon buzzard  for  the  seasonal  task  of  incubation 
and  rearing  young  birds. 

The  bird  mentioned  by  Mr.  Yarrell  was  kept 
in  the  garden  of  the  Chequers,  in  the  good  town 
of  Uxbridge,  of  ineffectual  treaty  memory.  The 
poor  bird — she  was  well  known  to  many  a  brother 
of  the  angle,  "  now,"  as  old  Izaak  hath  it,  "  with 
God  " — manifested  her  inclination  to  frame  a  nest 

*  Buteo  vulgaria. 


by  gathering  and  twisting  about  all  the  loose  sticks 
she  could  lay  beak  and  claw  on.  The  good  mas- 
ter of  the  house  had  compassion  on  her,  furnished 
her  with  twigs  and  all  appliances  and  means  to 
boot,  and  the  solitary  creature  went  to  work  and 
completed  a  nest.  Two  hens'  eggs  were  put 
under  her ;  she  hatched  them  well  and  reared 
them  bravely.  Her  desire  to  sit  was  indicated  by 
scratching  holes  in  the  garden,  and  breaking  and 
tearing  everything  within  reach  of  beak  and  talons. 
Year  after  year  did  she  hatch  and  bring  up  a 
goodly  troop  of  chickens,  and  in  1831  her  brood 
consisted  of  nine,  after  the  loss  of  one,  for  she  had 
brought  out  ten.  Upon  one  occasion  her  kind 
master,  to  save  her  from  what  he  thought  the 
ennui  of  sitting,  put  down  to  her  a  newly  hatched 
lot.  Luckless  little  ones,  she  destroyed  every  chick 
of  them.  The  good  man  did  wot  know  the  animal 
economy  which  makes  the  application  of  the  eggs 
to  the  inflamed  breast  of  the  female  bird  a  balm, 
rendering  this  labor  of  Jove  twice  blessed,  aad 
leading  in  its  train  all  the  maternal  charities. 
The  ready-made  nestlings  were  treated  as  intrud- 
ing impostors;  but  to  her  own  foster-chicks  no 
honest  barn-door  chuckie  was  ever  more  attentive ; 
only  when  ilesh  was  given  to  her,  and  she  broke 
it  up  for  her  young  family,  she  appeared  mortified 
that  after  taking  a  few  morsels,  they  left  her  and 
her  oarrion  to  pick  up  the  grain  with  which  they 
ware  supplied. 

Have  we  not  something  to  answer  for  in  con- 
fining God's  creatures  in  solitude  where  they  can- 
not fulfil  the  divine  command? 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


LEAVES     FROM 


THE   NOTE-BOOK 
RALIST. 


OF    A    NATU- 


PART     III. STORKS. 


IF  any  philosopher  should  gird  himself  to  the 
task  of  tracing  the  vagaries  of  the  Transmigrating 
Ens,  as  it  has  been  termed,  and  following  the 
spirit  through  its  various  phases,  he  would  have 
an  amusing  but  a  puzzling  time  of  it,  even  though 
he  took  Pythagoras  for  his  guide.  And  yet  that 
doctrine  of  the  Metempsychosis,  founded  not  improb- 
ably on  the  growth,  dissolution,  and  regeneration 
of  animal  and  vegetable  natures,  raises  thoughts 
not  to  be  hastily  cast  away.  It  mingles  with  our 
reasonings,  be  they  grave  or  gay  ;  suggests  itself 
to  Hamlet  when  he  discourses  of  imperial  Caesar, 
and  to  the  wag  who,  after  decking  the  last  resting- 


place   *f  Quin   with   thyme    and 
breathes  the  pious  aspiration — 


pot-marjoram. 


And  fat  be  the  gander  that  feeds  on  his  grave. 

Bodies  die  but  to  revive.  The  carcass,  uncon- 
taminated  by  medical  efforts  to  cheat  the  worm, 
soon  swarms  with  animal  life  in  a  different  form  ; 
and  the  decayed  vegetable  revives  in  the  mucor 
which  bursts  from  its  dead  fibres,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  hosts  of  minute  insects  which  live,  and 
move,  and  have  their  being  upon  its  remains. 
And  this,  be  it  remembered,  is  only  the  first  stage 
patent  to  all  eyes.  But  who  shall  say  that  when 
the  cycle  is  completed  the  dead  body  may  not  live 
again  as  a  perfect  animal  or  vegetable,  more  per- 
fect than  when  the  sun  first  shone  upon  it  in  its 
nascent  state  ? 

In  truth,  all  sublunary  nature  is  apparently  so 
full  that  one  may  well  understand  the  notion  that 
the  quantity  of  matter  is  infinitesimally  small  and 
the  volume  of  spirit  enormously  great.  Jupiter,  it 
is  said,  seeing  this,  threw  down  a  capacious  handful 
of  souls  upon  this  petit  tas  de  boue,  and  left  them 
to  scramble  for  the  few  bodies  open  to  them. 

If  such  tales  be  true,  happy  must  the  struggling 
soul  have  been  that  worked  its  way  into  the  egg 
of  a  stork,  that  personification  of  all  the  virtues. 
Gratitude,  temperance,  chastity,  piety — these  were 
a  few  of  the  qualities  attributed  to  the  bird  by  the 
ancients.  Welcome  everywhere,  and  bearing  a 
charmed  life,  it  was  and  is  hailed  as  the  harbinger 
of  spring  and  the  destroyer  of  evil  things.  Even 
the  Dutchman  grows  animated  when  he  sees  the 
stork  return  to  the  well-known  nest,  and  expresses 
his  pleasure  at  beholding  the  snowy  wader  stalk 
about  his  polders  by  a  reduplication  of  puffs  from 
his  eternal  pipe.  Nay,  he  has  been  known  on 
such  an  occasion  to  withdraw  the  reeking  tube 
from  his  Jips  for  a  moment,  and  ask  the  frogs  how 
they  liked  their  new  king? 

The  disappearance  of  the  storks  in  the  winter 
and  their  reappearance  in  the  spring  gave  rise  to 
the  same  tales  of  brumal  hybernation  as  were  long 
rife  about  the  swallows  ;  and  stories  were  told  of 
a  concatenation  of  storks,  joined  head  and  tail 
together,  having  been  fished  out  of  the  water. 


The  Lake  of  Como,  if  we  recollect  right,  was  one 
of  the  hybernacula  out  of  which  they  were  de- 
clared to  have  been  taken,  apparently  dead,  but 
revived  by  the  fishermen,  who  restored  animation 
by  placing  them  in  a  warm  bath.  And  yet  Pliny 
had  no  doubt  about  their  migration,  and  as  little 
that  they  arrived  from  a  great  distance,  though  he 
says  that  in  his  time  it  was  not  known  from  what 
country  they  came  or  whither  they  retired.  Old 
Belon,  however,  well  knew  that  Africa  was  the 
locality  of  their  winter  quarters;  and  he  gives 
evidence  of  their  having  been  seen  whitening  the 
plains  of  Egypt  in  September  and  October.  The 
same  excellent  ornithologist — blessings  on  him  for 
a  good  observer — beheld  a  large  flock  of  them  in 
the  act  of  migration,  when  he  was  at  Abydos,  in 
the  month  of  August.  They  came  from  the  north, 
and  when  they  arrived  at  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
they  wheeled  round  and  round,  then  broke  into 
companies,  and  proceeded  no  longer  in  one  body. 
Dr.  Shaw,  in  his  journey  over  Mount  Carmel,  saw 
them  coming  from  Egypt  in  flocks  extending  balf- 
a-mile  in  breadth,  each  of  which  occupied  three 
hours  in  passing  over.  There  are  stories  of  their 
being  heralded  in  their  flights  by  crows,  who  lead 
the  way  ;  others,  again,  say  that  a  deadly  enmity 
exists  between  the  two  races,  and  that  stout  battles 
have  been  witnessed  between  the  storks  and  crows 
in  Egypt. 

The  advent  of  the  crows  is  announced  by  their 
cries,  but  the  stork  utters  no  vocal  sound.  This 
silence  probably  gave  rise  to  the  notion  entertained 
by  the  ancients  that  the  storks  had  no  tongue. 
Their  ordinary  mode  of  communication  is  by  clat- 
tering the  mandibles  like  a  pair  of  castanets. 

This  peculiarity  was  well  known  to  the  ancients. 

Ipsa  sibi  plaudat  crepitante  ciconia  rostro, 

writes  Ovid,  (Metam.  vi.,  97,)  and  Dante  refers  to 
it  in  his  description  of  the  agonies  of  the  guilty  in 
the  place  of  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth — 

Eran  1'ombre  dolenti  nella  ghiaccia  ; 
Mettendo  i  denti  in  nota  di  Cicogna.* 

Large  are  the  assemblies  and  sonorous  the  clatter- 
ings  that  precede  their  autumnal  migration.  The 
quaint  Philemon  Holland  thus  renders  Pliny's 
account  of  one  of  these  gatherings,  and  making 
allowance  for  the  time  when  the  Roman  wrote, 
there  is  little  in  it  that  has  not  been  certified  by 
modern  observers : — 

When  they  be  minded  (writes  the  translator  of 
Plinies  Naturall  Historic) — wheii  they  be  minded 
to  part  out  of  our  coasts,  they  assemble  all  togethnr 
in  one  certain  place  appointed :  there  is  not  one 
left  out  nor  absent  of  their  owne  kind.unlesse  it  be 
some  that  are  not  at  libertie,  but  captive  or  in  bond- 
age. Thus  (as  if  it  had  been  published  before  by 
proclamation)  they  rise  all  in  one  entire  companie, 
and  away  they  flie.  And  albeit  well  knowne  it 
might  be  afore  that  they  were  upon  their  remove 
and  departure,  yet  was  there  never  any  man 
(watched  he  never  so  well)  that  could  perceive 
them  in  their  flight :  neither  do  we  at  any  time  see 
when  they  are  coming  to  us,  before  we  know  that 

*  Inferno,  canto  xxxii.,  1.  35, 36. 


LEAVES   FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


they  be  alrcadie  come.  The  reason  is  because  they 
doe  the  one  and  the  other  alwaies  by  night.  And 
notwithstanding  that  they  flie  too  and  fro  from 
place  to  place  and  make  but  one  flight  of  it,  yet  be 
they  supposed  never  to  have  arrived  at  any  coast 
but  in  the  night.  There  is  a  place  in  the  open 
plaines  and  champion  countrey  of  Asia,  called 
Pithonos-Come :  where  (by  report)  they  assemble 
all  together,  and  being  met,  keep  a  jangling  one 
with  another ;  but  in  the  end,  look  which  of  them 
lagged  behind  and  came  tardie,  him  they  teare  in 
peeces,  and  then  they  depart.  This  also  hath  been 
noted,  that  after  the  Ides  of  August  they  be  not 
lightly  seene  there. 

Some  affirme  constantly  that  storkes  have  no 
tongues.  But  so  highly  regarded  they  are  for 
slaying  of  serpents,  that  in  Thessalie  it  is  accounted 
a  capitall  crime  to  kill  a  storke,  and  by  law  he  is 
punished  as  a  fellon  in  the  case  of  manslaughter. 

In  Oppian's  time  the  knowledge  of  the  where- 
about of  the  storks  had  somewhat  advanced,  for 
he  speaks  of  accounts  of  some  flying  from  Lycia, 
and  others  from  Ethiopia.  But  however  doubtful 
the  ancients  may  have  been  as  to  the  place  where 
these  birds  passed  the  winter,  none  but  those  who 
delighted  in  marvels  rather  than  facts  discredited 
their  migration.  Long  before  tho  time  of  Pliny 
and  Oppian  it  had  been  written — "  Even  the 
storke  in  the  aire  knoweth  her  appointed  times, 
and  the  turtle,  and  the  crane,  and  the  swallow, 
observe  the  time  of  their  comming."* 

Turn  we  now  to  the  romantic  history  of  the 
white  stork.  Laomedon's  lovely  daughter,  Pri- 
am's charming  sister,  who  shone  among  mortal 
virgins  like  the  moon  amidst  the  stars,  vaunted  in 
her  pride  that  she  was  more  beautiful  than  the 
queen  of  heaven.  Juno,  who  was  not  remarkable 
for  patience  under  such  insults,  uttered  the  fiat  of 
degradation  ;  and  poor  Antigone  found  her  deli- 
cate nose  and  exquisite  mouth  elongate  into  a  red 
horny  beak,  and  her  fair  body  stilted  up  on  two 
lofty  skinny  red  legs,  with  nothing  but  the  flat- 
tened nails  at  the  end  of  her  attenuated  toes,  to 
remind  her  of  limbs  cast  in  the  most  perfect  femi- 
nine mould.  This  form  of  the  nails  did  not 
escape  Willughby,  who  says,  writing  of  the  bird — 
"  Its  claws  are  broad,  like  the  nails  of  a  man  ;  so 
that  7tluTv<ut*vxos  will  not  be  sufficient  to  differ- 
ence a  man  from  a  stork  with  its  feathers  pluckt 
off."  Poor  Antigone !  Instead  of  a  king's 
board  graced  with  every  delicacy,  her  table  was 
to  be  thereafter  spread  in  the  wilderness.  But 
the  irritable  and  jealous  goddess  seems  to  have 
had  some  touch  of  mercy  ;  for,  according  to  the 
legends,  she  left  the  transformed  all  her  virtues 
and  amiable  qualities  when  she  punished  her  inso- 
lence. Gratitude,  temperance,  chastity,  piety, 
were  some  of  the  bright  spots  left  to  console  her 
for  her  otherwise  dark  lot ;  and  they  have,  it 
would  seem,  adorned  the  species  ever  since. 

Of  the  gratitude  of  storks,  there  are  stories 
enough  to  fill  a  volume.  They  were  said,  on 
their  annual  return  to  their  nests  on  the  house- 

*Jerem.  viii.  7.  "Imprinted  at  London  by  Robert 
Barker,  Printer  to  the  King's  most  Excellent  Maiestie] 
16.5." 


tops,  regularly  to  throw  down  to  their  landlord 
one  of  their  young  ones  by  way  of  rent  or  tribute 
— an  act  of  justice  executed  a  little  at  the  expense 
of  their  parental  character.  Well,  if  you  are  not 
inclined  to  believe  this,  best  of  readers,  listen  to 
the  story  of  Heracleis  of  Tarentum,  the  good,  the 
chaste,  the  pious  Heracleis.  She,  when  the 
angel  of  death  smote  her  beloved  husband,  wept 
long  and  sorely,  but  not  like  her  of  Ephesus. 
No,  she  could  no  longer  endure  the  sight  of  the 
empty  chair  and  the  widowed  couch,  but  set  up 
her  abode  at  her  husband's  tomb.  Here,  as  she 
sat  in  her  sorrow  on  a  lovely  summer's  day,  when 
all  was  smiling  but  the  dejected  widow,  she  be- 
held a  pair  of  storks  teaching  their  young  ones  to 
fly.  A  weakling  of  infirm  wings  fell  to  the 
ground  and  broke  its  leg.  Heracleis  had  suffered 
too  much  herself  not  to  feel  compassion  for  the 
suffering  of  other  creatures ;  so  she  cherished  the 
young  bird,  bound  up  its  wounds,  applied  healing 
remedies,  and  when  the  cure  was  completed,  gave 
it  its  liberty.  Away  it  flew  ;  and  as  she  watched 
its  departure  with  a  sigh,  she  was  again  left  alone 
with  her  grief. 

The  next  year,  as  she  was  sitting  at  the  door 
of  the  tomb,  with  her  pale  features  and  mourning 
robe,  bathed  in  the  beams  of  a  vernal  sun,  she 
beheld  at  a  distance  a  stork  skimming  low  along 
the  ground  towards  her.  On  came  the  bird  :  as 
it  approached  she  recognized  her  patient ;  and 
now  it  gently  hovered  over  her,  dropt  from  its 
beak  a  stone  into  her  lap,  and  departed.  The 
poor  widow  wondered  what  this  might  mean  ;  but 
struck  with  the  action,  she  took  the  stone  in  and 
laid  it  down.  At  night  the  place  shone  as  if 
illuminated  by  torches,  the  radiant  effulgence  pro 
ceeding  from  the  precious  gem — brighter  than 
that  mountain  of  light,  the  koh-i-noor  diamond— 
which  the  stork  had  brought  from  distant  lands  to 
his  benefactress. 

Stuff,  sir ! 

Well,  madam,  if  you  will  not  believe  -^Elian 
here  is,  "  Another  Account,"  as  the  best  possible 
public  instructors  say. 

A  good-for-nothing  fellow  threw  a  stone  at  a 
stork  and  broke  its  leg.  The  poor  stork  got  to 
its  nest,  and  there  lay.  The  women  of  the  house 
fed  it,  set  its  leg,  and  cured  it,  so  that  it  was  able 
at  the  proper  season  to  fly  away  with  the  rest. 
Next  spring,  the  bird,  which  was  recognized  by 
the  women  from  the  kink  in  its  gait,  as  the  sailors 
say,  returned,  and  when  they,  attracted  by  its 
gesticulations,  approached,  dropped  gratefully  at 
their  feet  from  its  bill  the  finest  diamond  it  had 
been  able  to  pick  up  in  its  travels. 

Then  there  was  the  ancient  stork,  that  had 
nested  for  I  don't  know  how  many  years  on  one 
particular  house.  This  well-bred  bird  never  re- 
turned in  the  spring  without  stalking  about  before 
the  door,  and  clattering  his  bill  till  the  master 
came  out,  when  stork  clattered  more  than  ever,  as 
much  as  to  say — "  The  top  of  the  morning  to 
you,  sir ;  here  I  am  again."  To  which  the  mas- 
ter would  reply — "  Ah !  old  fellow,  how  are 


LEAVES    FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


you?"  When  autumn  came  the  same  ceremony 
was  gone  through  ;  the  stork  clattering — "  Good- 
by,  your  honor ;"  and  the  master  saying,  "  A 
pleasant  journey  to  you,  old  boy." 

Another  ancient,  not  contented'with  mere  empty 
greeting,  is  stated  to  have  brought  every  time  he 
returned  a  root  of  ginger,  which,  after  a  sufficient 
exordium  of  clattering,  was  disgorged  as  a  new- 
year's  gift  to  the  master  of  the  house. 

Every  one  knows  the  story  of  the  little  dog 
that  brought  a  bigger  one  to  revenge  his  wrongs 
upon  an  over-grown  bully  ;  but  Oppian  caps  this 
when  he  tells  us  that  once  upon  a  time  a  huge 
serpent  contrived  year  after  year  to  insinuate 
itself  into  the  nest  of  a  stork,  and  destroy  its 
young.  At  last  the  bereaved  parents  brought 
back  with  them  another  bird,  which  had  never 
been  previously  seen,  shorter  than  a  stork,  but 
with  a  great  sharp  sword-like  beak.  When  the 
nestlings  were  ripe  for  slaughter,  forth  crept  the 
serpent ;  but  this  time  he  was  confronted  by  the 
warlike  ally,  and  a  fierce  combat  ensued  between 
the  bird  and  the  reptile,  which  at  length  termi- 
nated in  the  death  of  the  murderous  aggressor ;  not, 
however,  with  impunity  on  the  part  of  the  defend- 
er of  nestlings,  which  suffered  so  severely  from 
the  poisonous  bite  of  the  snake  that  all  his  feath- 
ers fell  off,  The  grateful  storks,  seeing  this, 
would  not  leave  their  benefactor  to  his  fate,  but 
cherished  him,  and  delayed  their  departure  till  his 
feathers  grew  again,  and  he  was  able  to  accom- 
pany them ;  when  the  whole  party  flew  away 
together. 

Of  their  love  of  chastity  and  hatred  of  infidel- 
ity, which  they  punish  with  the  utmost  severity, 
the  ancients  tell  equally  edifying  tales.  Does  a 
storkess  go  wrong,  her  stork  finds  it  out  and  takes 
no  notice  to  her  ;  but  quietly  flies  off  and  brings 
a  crowd  of  avengers  with  him,  who  tear  the  adul- 
tress  to  pieces.  Beware  all  ye  on  whose  house- 
top a  stork  nestles !  Be  sure  he  will  find  your 
sin  out.  The  slave  was  very  joyous  with  his 
beautiful  but  frail  mistress  in  the  absence  of  his 
master  ;  till,  one  fine  morning,  the  stork  of  the 
house,  taking  him  at  advantage,  flew  at  him  and 
pecked  his  eyes  out. 

When  the  storks  return,  the  males  are  said  to 
precede  the  females  some  days,  during  which  time 
they  refit  the  nests  and  make  all  ready  and  com- 
fortable for  their  better  halves.  And  when  these 
arrive,  each  flying  to  her  own  mate,  ye  gods  ! 
what  billing,  and  clattering,  and  hymeneal  joys  do 
abound,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  old  chronicles. 

For  temperance,  too,  the  stork  was  as  highly 
praised  by  the  ancients  as  Father  Mathew  is  by 
the  moderns. 

But  the  piety  of  the  bird  !  Ah,  there  was  its 
strong  point.  Did  it  not  give  the  hint  for  the 
Leges  Ciconiarite,  by  which  children  were  com- 
pelled to  support  their  parents,  and  are  they 
not  law  to  this  day  ?  If  you  doubt,  turn  to  the 
Birds  of  Aristophanes,  and  his  sharp  satire  upon 
the  unplumed  biped  there  extant. 

Did  not  the  pious  ^Eneas,  when  he  bore  the 


good  Anchises  on  his  shoulders,  learn  from  the 
stork  which,  even  when  danger  did  not  threaten, 
and  his  aged  parent  had  been  obliged  to  take  to 
the  nest  again  in  his  second  chickhood,  carried 
the  infirm  ancient  out  for  an  airing  on  his  more 
juvenile  shoulders?  What  says  the  old  French 
quatraine  ? 

Le  Cicogneau,  ayant  prins  sa  croissance 
Porte  et  nourrit  ses  pe're  et  we're  vieux. 
Ainsi  chacun  d'aider  soit  envieux 
Son  pere  vieil  tombe  en  decadence. 

And  the  parental  was  equal  to  the  filial  piety 
of  these  birds.  Witness  the  true  story  of  th'e 
devoted  mother  at  the  great  fire  of  Delft.  The 
flames  raged  and  crackled  on  every  side  :  they 
gained  the  roof  where  the  nest  with  its  callow 
young  lay.  The  distracted  parent  tried  in  vain, 
by  every  means  in  her  power,  to  convey  her 
young  from  the  danger,  but  her  most  strenuous 
efforts  were  unavailing  ;  and  then,  singed  with  the 
fire  and  half-suffocated  by  the  smoke,  she  spread 
her  wings  over  them,  pressed  them  to  her  bosom, 
and  perished  with  them. 

So  much  for  what  may  be  termed  the  good 
moral  qualities  of  the  stork  ;  now  let  us  take  a 
glance  at  its  physical  structure. 

Mounted  on  two  long  bare  legs  covered  with  a 
scaly  skin,  fit  armor  against  the  tooth  of  Cleopatra's 
asp,  the  light  body  is  justly  balanced.  The  toes 
are  webbed  to  the  first  joint  from  the  divarication  ; 
so  that,  if  in  wading  it  should  suddenly  get  out  of 
its  depth,  the  safety  of  the  bird  is  provided  for. 
The  extensive  wings,  framed  for  wafting  the 
animated  vessel  on  its  lofty  aerial  voyage,  are 
worked  by  powerful  muscles ;  while  the  head, 
thrown  back  by  the  long  neck  on  the  body,  lies 
compact,  and  the  extended  legs  aid  the  compara- 
tively short  tail  in  regulating  the  course  of  the 
animated  balloon.  When  on  the  feed  the  neck  is 
either  stretched  out,  or,  if  the  bird  be  watching  for 
its  prey,  drawn  back  upon  the  shoulders,  ready  to 
dart  forth  the  spear-like  beak  in  a  moment.  Ser- 
pents, lizards,  fish,  and  frogs,  are  its  favorite  food, 
and  hence  the  respect  in  which  it  is  held  by  all 
nations  to  whom  it  comes  a  welcome  and  regular 
visitor.  Toads  it  will  eat  if  pressed  by  hunger, 
but  not  for  choice,  eschewing  most  probably  the 
acrid  exudation  which  is  discharged  from  the 
tubercles  of  that  reptile's  skin. 

He  who  in  the  summer  glides  near  the  banks 
of  what  was  once  the  silver  Thames  sees  the 
tempting  bait  of  "  LIVE  FISH"  hung  out  from 
many  a  sign,  which  too  often  lies  like  a  bulletin. 
Now  the  stork's  repast  is  very  frequently  a  truly 
animated  one,  and  he  not  unfrequently  .feels  the 
inconvenience  of  a  too  lively  dinner,  anxious  to 
escape  by  one  of  the  doors  mentioned  by  Dr.  Last 
in  the  course  of  his  examination.  "  I  know  them," 
saith  the  worthy  Joannes  Faber,  "  who  have 
learned  by  ocular  inspection  that  storks,  when  such 
serpents  as  they  swallow  passed  alive  through 
their  bodies  (as  they  will  do  several  times,)  use 
to  clap  their  tails  against  a  wall  so  long  till  they 
feel  the  serpents  dead  within  them." 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


Three  or  four  white  eggs,  with  a  slight  tinge 
of  buff,  suboval,  some  two  inches  and  ten  lines  in 
length,  and  about  one  inch  eleven  lines  broad,  are 
deposited  by  the  white  stork  in  its  ample  nest. 
The  parents  feed  their  nestlings  after  the  manner 
of  pigeons,  by  inserting  their  own  bills  within 
those  of  their  young,  and  imparting  from  their 
own  stomach  the  partly  digested  remains  of  the  food 
which  they  have  last  taken. 

That  the  white  stork  does  not  scrupulously 
confine  itself  to  a  fish,  frog,  and  serpent  diet,  those 
know  to  their  cost  who  have  suffered  it  to  stalk 
about  near  the  breeding-places  where  the  wild 
duck  hides  her  nest.  The  highly  moral  bird, 
whose  piety  is  blazoned  in  books  of  emblems,  car- 
rying his  revered  parent  on  his  shoulders,  and 
held  sacred  in  so  many  cities,  (where,  doubtless, 
they  keep  their  weather  eyes  open  upon  their 
juvenile  stray  poultry,)  notwithstanding  his  solemn 
gait,  is  a  bit  of  a  Pecksniff  in  his  way.  After 
standing  stock  still  in  a  musing  attitude,  as  if  he 
were  above  the  vanities  of  this  world,  he  has 
been  seen  to  march  slowly  by  the  side  of  the  orna- 
mental lake  with  the  air  of  a  contemplative  phi- 
losopher, and  then  disappear  among  the  bushes. 
Before  his  disappearance  a  snug  nest  near  the 
point  where  he  vanished,  as  if  to  continue  his 
meditations  undisturbed  by  human  eye,  has  been 
seen  full  of  goodly  little  dusky  powder  puffs  of 
wild  ducklings,  and  somehow  or  other,  when  he 
has  emerged  from  the  wilderness,  it  has  been 
soon  after  discovered  that  the  nest  was  empty. 
This  feathered  ogre  was  in  the  habit  of  visiting 
the  nests  day  by  day,  biding  his  time  till  incubation 
was  fully  complete,  when  he  swallowed  every 
squab  that  had  come  to  light.  But  every  living 
thing  eats  only  to  be  eaten.  As  far  as  humanity 
is  concerned  the  white  stork  appears  to  have  gone 
out  of  fashion,  and  come  in  again  as  a  savory  dish. 

Cornelius  Nepos,  who  died  in  the  daies  of  Au- 
gustus Caesar  Emperor,  in  that  chapter,  where  he 
wrote  that  a  little  before  his  time  men  began  to  feed 
and  cram  blackbirds  and  thrushes  in  coupes,  saith 
moreover,  that  in  his  daies  storks  were  holden  for 
a  better  dish  at  the  bourd  than  cranes.  And  yet 
see  how  in  our  age  now  no  man  will  touch  a  storke 
if  it  be  set  before  him  upon  the  bourd  ;  but  every 
one  is  readie  to  reach  unto  the  crane,  and  no  dish 
is  in  more  request.* 

Horace,  in  his  bitter  second  satire,f  writes : — 

Tutus  crat  rhombus,  tutoquc  ciconia  nido : 
Donee  vos  auctor  docuit  Prastorius. 

And  the  gay  Petronius  rattles  along  the  lines,  in 
which  we  hear  the  clatter  of  the  bird's  beak  : — 

Cicojiia  etiam  grata,  peregrina,  hospita, 
Pietaticultrix,  gracilipes,  crotalistria,  . 
Avis  exsul  hiemis,  titulus  tepedi  ternporis, 
Nequitioe  nidum  in  cacabo  fecit  meo.J 

Old  Belon  (anno  1555)  quotes  the  passage  from 
Pliny  with  the  following  comment : — "  Voulant 
dire  que  les  Grues  estoyent  en  delices,  et  les  cicog- 
nes  n'estoyent  touchees  de  personne."  But  he 
adds,  "  Maintenant  les  Cicognes  sont  tenues  pour 
viande  royale." 
*  Holland's  Pliny.  t  L.  49.  *  Satyricon,  c.  55. 


We  do  not  trace  it  in  our  household  books. 
Indeed,  the  bird  never  comes  to  these  islands  regu- 
larly ;  and  but  a  few  instances  of  its  presence  here 
in  a  free  state  are  recorded,  though  it  is  so  frequent 
on  the  continent,  and  much  further  north — Russia 
for  example. 

In  the  old  Pharmacopoeia,  which  it  must  be 
owned  contained  many  a  rich  prescription,  the 
white  stork  made  a  great  show.  He  who  ate  the 
flesh,  roasted  or  boiled,  might  safely  go  to  the  wars, 
as  far  as  his  nerves  and  joints  were  concerned ; 
and  it  was  considered  equally  potent  against  the 
more  cruel  domestic  enemies,  gout  and  sciatica. 
A  diet  on  the  young  was  equally  efficient  in  dis- 
orders of  the  eyes ;  and  their  ashes  made  an  infal- 
lible collyrium.  To  cure  paralysis  you  had  only 
to  catch  a  young  stork,  clap  its  bill  under  its  wing, 
suffocate  it  under  a  pillow,  chop  it  up,  put  the 
pieces  into  an  alembic,  save  the  distilled  liquor,  and, 
after  having  bathed  the  disabled  limb  with  a  decoc- 
tion of  crabs — without  salt,  mind  you — anoint  it 
with  the  aforesaid  essence  of  stork,  and  follow  this 
course  alternately  ;  when,  if  the  patient  were  not 
cured,  't  was  a  wonder.  If  you  should  have  some 
misgivings  concerning  the  efficacy  of  the  nestlings, 
consult  Leonellus  Faventinus,  and  he  will  tell  you 
that  an  old  stork,  plucked  and  simmered  in  oil,  till 
the  flesh  separates  from  the  bones,  is  just  as  good 
against  the  same  disease  as  oil  of  vipers.  Take 
one  ounce  of  camphor,  with  a  drachm  of  the  best 
amber,  place  it  in  the  belly  of  an  exenterated 
young  stork  caught  before  he  can  fly,  distil  it,  and 
Andreas  Furnerius  will  assure  you  that  you  have  an 
infallible  cosmetic,  which  we  venture  to  state  will 
mend  complexions  as  effectually  as  the  Circassian 
Bloom  or  Rowland's  Kalydor.  Pliny  will  convince 
you  that  the  stomach  of  the  bird  was  a  specific 
against  all  poisons,  and  Belon  corroborates  him. 
In  short,  not  to  weary  you,  dear  reader,  the  stork, 
according  to  these  wise  men,  was  a  universal  med- 
icine chest. 

The  bird  was  looked  up  to  by  more  than  one 
profession.  The  gardener  looked  at  its  bill,  and 
named  one  of  his  most  favorite  groups  of  plants 
Pelargonium;  the  chemist  beheld  it,  and  fashioned 
his  retort ;  and  the  apothecary  took  a  hint  from 
the  practice  of  the  bird  about  which  we  care  not 
to  be  particular,  though  some  will  have  it  that  it 
was  the  ibis,  and  not  the  stork,  which  made  the 
suggestion.  And  here  we  may  observe,  that  Be- 
lon and  others  are  of  opinion  that  our  bird  is  the 
white  ibis  of  Herodotus  (Euterpe,  76  ;)  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  moderns,  as  well  as- 
the  delightful  Halicarnassian,  record,  and  with 
truth,  a  white  as  well  as  a  dark  species  of  ibis  ; 
and  it  is  not  less  true  that  there  is  a  black  as  well, 
as  a  white  stork. 

The  black  stork*  is  the  very  opposite  to  th"» 
white  species,  in  manners  as  well  as  in  color,  fly- 
ing from  the  haunts  of  men  as  eagerly  as  they  are- 
sought  by  the  latter.  The  food  is  nearly  the  samo 
as  that  of  Ciconia  alba,  with,  however,  a  greateu 
leaning  towards  a  fish  diet. 

*  Ciconia  nigra. 


12 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


Its  visits  to  this  country  are  rare.  Colonel 
Montagu's  tame  black  stork  was  slightly  shot  in 
the  wing  on  Sedgemoor,  near  the  parish  of  Stoke 
in  Somersetshire,  in  May,  1814.  The  bone  was 
not  broken,  and  the  bird  lived  in  the  colonel's  pos- 
session, in  good  health,  for  more  than  a  year.  Like 
the  white  stork,  it  frequently  rested  upon  one  leg  ; 
and  if  alarmed,  particularly  by  the  approach  of  a 
dog,  it  made  a  considerable  noise  by  reiterated 
snapping  of  the  bill,  similar  to  that  species.  It 
soon  became  docile,  and  would  follow  its  feeder 
for  a  favorite  morsel — an  eel.  When  very  hun- 
gry it  crouched,  resting  the  whole  length  of  the 
legs  upon  the  ground,  and  seemed  to  supplicate  for 
food  by  nodding  its  head,  flapping  its  wings,  and 
forcibly  expelling  the  air  from  the  lungs  with 
audible  expirations.  Whenever  it  was  approached, 
the  blowing,  accompanied  by  repeated  nodding  of 
the  head,  was  provoked.  It  was  of  a  mild  and 
peaceful  disposition,  very  unlike  many  of  its  con- 
geners ;  for  it  never  used  its  formidable  bill  offen- 
sively against  any  of  its  prisoned  companions,  and 
even  submitted  peaceably  to  be  taken  up  without 
much  struggle.  From  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  observed  to  search  the  grass  with  its  bill,  there 
could  be  no  doubt  that  reptiles  form  part  of  its 
natural  food  ;  and  the  colonel  inferred  that  even 
mice,  worms,  and  the  larger  insects  probably,  add 
to  its  usual  repast.  When  searching  in  thick  grass, 
or  in  the  mud,  for  its  prey,  the  bill  was  kept 
partly  open.  "  By  this  means,"  says  the  colonel, 
"  I  have  observed  it  take  eels  in  a  pond  with  great 
dexterity  :  no  spear  in  common  use  for  taking  that 
fish  can  more  effectually  receive  it  between  its 
prongs  than  the  grasp  of  the  stork's  open  mandi- 
bles. A  small  eel  has  no  chance  of  escaping 
when  once  roused  from  its  lurking-place.  But  the 
stork  does  not  gorge  its  prey  instantly  like  the  cor- 
morant ;  on  the  contrary,  it  retires  to  the  margin 
of  the  pool,  and  there  disables  its  prey  by  shaking 
and  beating  it  with  its  bill  before  it  ventures  to 
swallow  it.  I  never  observed  this  bird  attempt  to 
swim  ;  but  it  will  wade  up  to  the  belly,  and  occa- 
sionally thrust  the  whole  head  and  neck  under 
water  after  its  prey.  It  prefers  an  elevated  spot 
on  which  to  repose  ;  an  old  ivy-bound  weeping 
willow,  that  lies  prostrate  over  the  pond  is  usually 
resorted  to  for  that  purpose.  In  this  quiescent 
state  the  neck  is  much  shortened  by  resting  the 
hinder  part  of  the  head  on  the  back,  and  the  bill 
rests  on  the  fore  part  of  the  neck,  over  which  the 
feathers  flow  partly  so  as  to  conceal  it,  making  a 
very  singular  appearance." 

In  this  attitude  the  bird  may  be  seen  in  the  Zo- 
ological Garden  in  the  Regent's  Park,  where  one 
has  lived  many  years,  and  has  stood  for  his  por- 
trait to  most  of  the  ornithological  writers  of  the 
day.  Its  likeness  illustrates  the  works  of  Bennett, 
.'Selby,  Gould,  Meyer,  and  Yarrell. 

Truly  Brahminical  and  reflective  is  the  air  of 
one  of  these  old  stagers.  Motionless  in  the  atti- 
tude above  described  stands  the  black  philosopher. 
It  is  a  lovely  summer's  day,  but  the  sun  and  the 
.gentle  breeze  floating  the  clouds  under  the  blue 


sky  move  him  not.  A  slight  motion  in  the  eye 
may  be  detected  as  one  of  the  giddy  young  spar- 
rows with  which  the  Zoological  garden  is  infested 
flits  by,  but  he  stirs  not.  At  last  a  luckless  new- 
fledged  one  passes  within  reach  of  our  philosopher. 
Quick  as  thought  the  trenchant  bill  is  darted  for- 
ward, and — crack  ! — the  little  bird  is  seized  and 
swallowed. 

Gesner  recommends  that  the  bird  should  be  first 
boiled  and  then  roasted.  He  describes  the  flesh  as 
of  a  reddish  tinge,  like  that  of  a  salmon,  and  to 
his  taste  it  seemed  good  and  sweet ;  but  he  adds 
that  the  skin  is  very  tough,  and  if  this  were  to  be 
taken  off  there  would,  probably,  be  no  need  of  the 
boiling. 

The  visitors  to  the  garden  in  the  Regent's  Park 
will  have  noticed  a  queer,  uncouth,  bald,  scabrous- 
headed,  feathered  form,  with  an  enormous  beak, 
now  marching  in  comic  stateliness,  at  another  time 
standing  on  one  or  two  stilts  of  legs  with  an  air 
of  drunken  gravity,  and  again  seated  with  the 
whole  length  of  legs  stretched  out  and  resting  upon 
them,  as  the  black  stork  is  above  described  to  have 
rested.  It  is  now  some  sixty  years  since  this  odd 
form  was  first  introduced  to  the  ornithologists  of 
this  country.  At  first  it  was  commonly  known  by 
the  name  of  the  "  Adjutant,"  the  title  conferred 
on  it  in  Calcutta.  Dr.  Latham  first  described  this 
Bengal  adjutant,  the  argala  of  the  natives,  in  his 
general  synopsis,  as  "  the  gigantic  crane."  But, 
in  truth,  there  are  no  less  than  three  species  of 
these  worthies,  forming  a  natural  group  of  gigan- 
tic storks,  not  only  cherished,  like  the  white  stork, 
for  their  services  to  man,  but  valued  for  the  beau- 
tiful plumes  called  "Marabous,"  from  the  Senegal 
name  of  the  African  species.  The  extreme  light- 
ness of  these  long  downy  feathers,  which  are  trans- 
ferred from  the  sides  beneath  the  wings  and  from 
under  the  tail  of  the  bird  to  wave  over  the  brow 
of  beauty,  where  they  float  with  every  breath  ot 
air,  may  be  conceived  from  Latham's  experiment. 
He  weighed  one  of  them,  which  was  eleven  inches 
and  three  quarters  in  length  and  seven  in  breadth, 
and  balanced  only  eight  grains. 

Temminck,  in  his  Planches  coloriees,  has  well 
pointed  out  the  difference  between  the  marabou  of 
Africa,  the  argala  of  the  Asiatic  continent,  and  the 
insular  species — probably  the  boorang-cambing  or 
boorong-oolar  of  Marsden — inhabiting  Java  and 
the  neighboring  islands.  The  Javanese  bird  sep- 
arated by  Dr.  Horsfield,  is  probably  identical  with 
the  Sumatran  species. 

Second  only  to  the  vultures  in  the  eagerness 
with  which  these  feathered  scavengers  turn  the 
most  disgusting  substances  into  nutriment,  the  adju- 
tants and  marabous  are  safe  from  all  annoyance, 
and  stalk  about  among  the  dwellings  of  man,  the 
privileged  abaters  of  all  nuisances.  Carrion,  flesb 
and  bone,  everything,  in  short,  that  offends  the  eye 
and  the  nose,  enters  the  omnivorous  maw  of  "  the 
large  throat,"  "  the  bone-eater,"  "  the  bone- 
taker,"  as  this  voracious  utilitarian  is  in  some 
places  termed.  Snakes,  lizards,  frogs,  and  small 
quadrupeds  and  birds,  have  small  chance  of  life 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


13 


when  they  fall  in  its  way  ;  and  as  the  size  of  the 
devourer  calls  for  a  vast  supply,  its  consumption 
of  both  living  and  dead  things  is  enormous. 

But  why  should  the  bird  have  been  called  an 
adjutant? — he  looks  more  like  an  ancient,  me- 
thinks. 

Very  good,  sir  ;  but  to  say  nothing  of  his  staid 
and  solemn  gait,  just  behold  him  afar  off.  "  I 
have  been  told,"  says  Latham,  "  that  the  bird  has 
obtained  this  last  name  of  adjutant  from  its  appear- 
ing, when  looked  on  in  front  at  a  distance,  like  a 
man  having  a  white  waistcoat  and  breeches." 

A  lofty  percher,  and  a  high  flyer,  so  as  to  give 
a  wide  sweep  to  its  ken,  in  order  that  it  may  per- 
ceive any  incumbrance  to  the  land  which  it  may 
clear  away,  the  bird  is  gifted  with  powerful  vision, 
and  appliances  to  assist  in  keeping  it  up  in  the  air. 
It  has  a  cervical  or  sternal  pouch,  more  or  less  de- 
veloped in  each  of  the  species,  which  depends 
more  than  a  foot  in  the  argala,  but  much  less  in 
the  marabou.  This,  as  well  as  the  skin  at  th« 
back  of  the  head,  can  be  inflated  at  the  will  of  the 
bird ;  and  both,  doubtless,  assist  its  buoyancy. 
From  its  high  roost  it  looks  down,  like  a  free- 
booter, from  its  tower  :  and  thereby  hangs  a  tale. 

2 


Almost  every  living  creature  may  be  made  a 
pet ;  and  Smeathman  noticed  a  marabou  which  had 
arrived  at  such  preferment.  Roosting  high  upon 
the  cotton  trees,  it  would  sit  motionless,  till  it  de- 
scried from  a  great  distance  the  servants  bringing 
the  dishes  to  the  dinner-table.  Then  down  it 
came,  and  took  its  place  behind  its  master's  chair. 
But  it  was  hard  to  keep  such  a  portentous  piece 
of  machinery  as  its  enormous  bill  idle  in  the  pres- 
ence of  so  many  good  things  ;  and  the  servants 
were  armed  with  switches  to  prevent  it  from  help- 
ing itself.  Notwithstanding  all  their  vigilance, 
however,  a  Whole  boiled  fowl  would  every  now 
and  then  vanish  from  the  dish,  and  disappear  at  a 
single  gulp  into  the  capacious  crop  of  the  pet. 

The  Jabirus,  (Mycteria,)  of  which  there  are 
three  species — in  Asia,  South  America,  and  Aus- 
tralia— are  closely  allied  to  the  family  of  storks, 
and  especially  to  the  gigantic  group  which  we 
have  here  attempted  to  sketch. 

We  cannot  learn  that  any  of  the  storks  kept  in 
the  Regent's  Park  have  attempted  incubation. 
The  Marabou  stork,  indeed,  dawdled  about,  and 
made  a  nest,  such  as  it  was,  one  season,  but  no 
egg  was  laid. 


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LEAVES   FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF    A     NATU- 
RALIST. 

PART  IV. 

AFRICA,  of  all  the  quarters  of  the  old  world,  is 
the  country  of  wonders.  Take  up  a  steady-going 
book  of  travels,  or  the  Arabian  Nights,  what  region 
like  Africa  1  Open  a  volume  of  natural  history, 
the  older  the  better,  and  the  African  marvellous 
forms  throw  all  the  others  into  shade.  Did  not  the 
phoenix  live  there,  and  make  its  appearance  among 
the  Heliopolitans  only  once  in  five  hundred  years  ? 
He  came  on  the  death  of  his  sire  in  shape  and  size 
like  an  eagle,  with  his  glorious  particolored  wings 
of  golden  hue  set  off  with  red,  dutifully  bearing 
from  Arabia  the  body  of  his  father  to  his  burial- 
place  in  the  temple  of  the  sun,  and  there  piously 
deposited  the  paternal  corpse  in  the  tomb. 

But  how  did  the  phoenix  carry  him  to  the  grave  ? 
As  the  kite  carried  Cock  Robin,  I  suppose. 

No  madam  ;  he  brought  his  revered,  deceased 
parent  in  this  manner.  He  first  formed  a  large 
egg  of  myrrh,  and  then,  having  by  trial  ascertained 
that  he  could  carry  it,  he  hollowed  out  the  artificial 
egg,  put  his  parent  into  it,  stopped  up  the  hole 
through  which  he  had  introduced  the  body,  with 
more  myrrh,  so  that  the  weight  was  the  same  as  the 
solid  egg  of  myrrh,  and  performed  the  funeral  in 
Egypt.* 

If  you  would  see  the  manner  of  his  death,  turn 
to  the  Portraits  d'Oyseaux,  Animoux,  Serpens, 
Herbes,  Arbres,  Hommes  et  Femrnes  (T  Arable  et 
Egypte,  observez  par  P.  Belon  du  mans  ;f  and 
there  you  will  behold  "  Le  Phoenix  selon  que  le 
vulgaire  a  costume  de  le  portraire"  on  his  fiery 
funeral  pile,  gazing  at  a  noon-day  radiant  sun  with 
as  good  eyes,  nose,  and  mouth,  as  ever  appeared 
over  mine  host's  door,  with  the  following  choice 
morsel  of  poetry  : — 

O  du  phoenix  la  divine  excellence  ! 
Ayant  vescu  seul  sept  cens  soixante  ans, 
II  meurt  dessus  des  ramees  d'ancens  : 
Et  de  sa  cendre  un  autre  prend  naissance. 

It  is  to  be  hoped,  for  the  sake  of  the  son,  that 
this  is  the  correct  version.  •  The  carriage  of  ashes 
from  Arabia  to  Egypt,  wrapped  up  in  myrrh,  is  a 
very  different  task  from  the  porterage  of  a  dead 
body  thence  and  thither. 

Some,  again,  declare  that  the  bird  never  died 
at  all  ;  but  that  when  Age  "  clawed  him  in  his 
clutch,"  and  he  found  himself  not  quite  so  jaunty 
as  in  the  vaward  of  his  youth,  he  collected  the 
choicest  perfumed  woods  of  Araby  the  blest, 
waited  patiently  for  fire  from  heaven  to  kindle 
the  "  spicy"  pile,  burnt  away  what  we  have  heard 
termed  "  his  old  particles"  and  came  forth  as  if  he 
had  drunk  of  the  renovating  elixir  of  life. 

But  what  right  had  the  phoenix  to  such  pleasant 
immortality  ? 

Because  he  never  ate  the  forbidden  fruit. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  place  in  Arabia,  near  the 


*  Herodotus,  Euterpe. 


t  Paris,  1557. 


city  of  Buto,  to  which  Herodotus  went  on  hearing 
of  some  winged  serpents  ;  and  when  he  arrived 
there,  he  saw  bones  and  spines  of  serpents  in  such 
quantities  as  it  would  be  impossible  to  describe  : 
there  they  were  in  heaps,  and  of  all  sizes.  Now 
this  place  is  a  narrow  pass  between  two  mountains, 
opening  into  a  spacious  plain  contiguous  to  that  of 
Egypt ;  and  it  is  reported,  says  he  of  Halicarnas- 
sus,  that,  at  the  commencement  of  spring,  winged 
serpents  fly  from  Arabia  towards  Egypt,  but  the 
ibises  meet  them  at  the  pass,  and  kill  them  ;  for 
which  service  the  ibis  is  held  in  high  reverence 

the  Egyptians.* 

The  "  serpent  selle"  that  fled  near  Mount  Sinai, 
figured  by  Belon,  was  probably  one  of  this  ghastly 
revv  of  invaders. 

And  here  a  word  for  Herodotus,  who  has  been 
accused  of  all  sorts  of  Munchausenisms.  It  will  be 
generally  found,  that  whatever  he  says  he  himself 
saw  has  been  corroborated  by  modern  eye-witnesses. 
In  the  case  of  the  phoenix  he  writes — "  They  say 
that  he  has  the  following  contrivance,  which,  in 
my  opinion,  is  not  credible  ;"  and  then  he  relates 
the  story  of  the  egg  of  myrrh,  and  of  the  son's 
carrying  the  father's  body  into  Egypt.  Again,  he 
heard  of  winged  serpents,  but  says  he  saw  the 
bones  of  serpents,  which  he  doubtless  did ;  and  after 
describing  the  black  ibis  which  fights  with  the 
serpents,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  chapter  he  evi- 
dently alludes  to  the  report,  when  he  says  that  the 
form  of  the  serpent  is  like  that  of  the  water-snake, 
but  that  he  has  wings  without  feathers,  and  as  like 
as  may  be  to  the  wings  of  a  bat. 

When  we  take  a  glance  at  the  map,  and  see 
what  an  enormous  area  of  African  territory  is  still 
an  undiscovered  country,  even  in  this  age  of  enter- 
prise, can  we  wonder  that  romance  has  been  busy 
with  the  vast  and  unknown  tracts  T  Many  of  the 
animals  which  are  known  to  us  are  of  extraordinary 
shape  and  habits  ;  and  it  was  but  the  other  day 
that  Professor  Owen  described  a  new  species  of 
anthropoid  apes,  the  Gorilla,  more  horrible  in 
appearance  than  any  phantom  that  Fuseli  ever 
imagined.  Look  at  the  proportions  of  the  giraffe, 
with  its  prehensile  tongue  and  its  mode  of  progres- 
sion, by  moving  two  legs  on  the  same  side  together, 
so  that  both  feet  are  off  the  ground  at  the  same 
time.  But  we  must  not  multiply  examples  which 
will  occur  to  most  of  our  readers. 

A  few  years  only  have  elapsed  since  the  giraffe 
has  been  made  familiar  to  modern  Europeans,  and 
in  no  country  have  so  many  been  kept  together  as 
in  the  British  islands.  In  the  garden  of  the 
Zoological  Society  they  have  bred  regularly  and 
well,  and  the  offspring,  with  one  exception,  have 
lived  and  thriven.  Still  there  are  three  huge 
African  forms  which  have  never  yet  made  their 
appearance  in  that  extensive  and  noble  vivarium — 
the  African  elephant,  the  hippopotamus,  and  the 
African  rhinoceros,  of  which  last  there  are  several 
species.  By  the  enterprise  of  the  society,  aided 
by  the  prudent  zeal  of  Mr.  Mitchell,  we  may  soon 

*  Euterpe,  74. 


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15 


have  the  satisfaction  of  beholding  the  two  first  of 
these  gigantic  pachyderms  in  the  garden  at  the 
Regent's  Park. 

And  here  we  cannot  but  congratulate  those  who 
delight  in  zoology — and  who,  nowadays,  does  not  ? 
— upon  the  happy  change  which  has  passed  over 
that  noble  and  now  well-conducted  establishment, 
since  Mr.  Mitchell,  favorably  known  for  his  attain- 
ments in  that  branch  of  science,  and  gifted  with 
the  command  of  a  ready  and  accurate  pencil,  has 
held  the  office  of  secretary.  A  healthy  and  com- 
fortable air  pervades  the  place.  The  habits  of  the 
animals  are  studied,  and  confinement  made  as  little 
irksome  as  possible.  Communications  are  opened 
with  foreign  powers,  and  new  forms  continually 
flow  in  consequent  upon  a  wise  liberality. 

I  am  just  returned  from  visiting  the  greyhounds 
ibout  to  be  sent  by  the  Zoological  Society  to 
Abbas  Pasha,  who  has  already  caused  one  young 
hippopotamus  to  be  taken  from  the  White  Nile.  It 
is  now  under  the  kind  care  of  the  Hon.  C.  A. 
Murray*  at  Cairo,  where  it  safely  arrived  on  the 
14th  of  November  last,  when  it  was  flourishing, 
enjoying  a  bath  of  the  temperature  of  the  river, 
and  delighting  everybody  by  its  amiable  and  docile 
qualities.  This  most  valuable  gift  was  accom- 
panied by  a  fine  lioness  and  a  cheetah  ;  and  Mr. 
Murray  was  further  informed  by  his  highness  the 
Viceroy  of  Egypt  that  a  party  of  his  troops  re- 
mained out  on  the  White  Nile,  expressly  charged 
with  the  duty  of  securing  a  young  female  hippo- 
potamus, destined  also  for  the  society. 

If  fortune  be  but  propitious — if  no  casualty 
should  arise  to  disappoint  our  hopes,  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  in  the  merry  month  of  May  two 
hippopotami  may  be  presented  to  the  wondering 
eyes  of  the  visitors  to  the  Regent's  Park.  The 
Romans,  who  saw  in  their  day  every  known  crea- 
ture that  the  Old  World  produced,  were  made 
familiar  with  this  uncouth  form — this  huge  in- 
corporation of  life — at  their  shows  and  shambles 
of  men  and  beasts,  when  both  fell  slaughtered  as 
the  crowning  excitement  of  the  arena.  But  no 
living  hippopotamus  has  yet  been  seen  on  British 
ground. 

The  King  of  Dahomy,  the  steps  of  whose  throne 
are  formed  of  the  skulls  of  hi*  enemies,  and  who 
commands  an  army  of  plump,  well-fed  Amazons, 
had  never  seen  a  peacock.  The  Zoological 
Society,  longing  for  an  African  elephant,  sent  over 
to  his  majesty  a  gift  of  pea-fowls,  the  cocks  having 
first  been  shorn  of  their  tail — or  rather  back- 
feathers  ;  for  the  feathers  springing  from  the 
back  arrange  themselves  into  that  magnificent  iri- 
descent circle,  and  are  supported  by  the  caudal 
feathers,  when  Juno's  bird  shines  out  in  all  its 
splendor,  and,  as  the  nursery-maids  term  it, 
"  spreads  his  tail." 

But  why  dock  the  peacocks  ? 

Because,  if  they  had  been  sent  with  their  trains 
on,  they  would  have  presented  such  a  ragged  ap- 

*  Zoologists  owe  a  large  debt  of  gratitude  to  Mr.  Mur- 
ray, for  the  unwearied  activity,  tact,  skill,  and  care, 
which  he  has  exerted  to  procure  curious  living  animals 
for  this  country. 


pearance  to  the  royal  eyes,  after  being  cooped  up 
on  their  voyage — to  say  nothing  of  the  irritation 
to  the  system  of  the  birds  themselves  from  their 
bedraggled  and  begrimed  plumage,  or  of  the  acci- 
dents of  pitch  and  tar — that  the  king  might  have 
well  questioned  the  faith  of  those  who  had  filled 
his  mind  with  the  glories  of  this  recipient  of  the 
eyes  of  Argus,  and  his  blood-drinker  might  have 
been  called  into  action.  No,  the  train-feathers 
were  most  wisely  cut,  and,  with  the  .birds,  a  well- 
executed  drawing  of  a  peacock  in  all  its  glory 
was  sent,  and  his  majesty  was  informed,  that 
when  they  moulted,  and  the  new  feathers  came  to 
perfection,  the  effect  would  be  similar  to  the 
drawing,  but  very  superior. 

With  the  present,  a  letter — grandis  epistola — 
was  sent,  besealed  and  beribanded,  together  with 
a  list  of  the  society  from  which  the  present  came. 
His  majesty  listened  in  silence  while  one  name 
well-known  to  scientific  Europe  after  another  was 
pronounced,  and  the  king  made  no  sign ;  but 
when  that  of  Lord  Palmerston  was  enunciated,  the 
royal  voice  interrupted  the  recitation  of  the  bead- 
roll  with,  "  Ah,  I  know  that  man  !" 

Then  the  peacocks  were  paraded,  and,  even  in 
their  curtailed  state,  admired,  and  the  king  gave 
directions  to  his  Amazons  to  seek  out  a  wild  fe- 
male elephant,  with  a  young  one  of  an  age  fit  to 
be  separated  from  the  mother  ;  and  when  they 
had  found  her,  their  orders  were  to  kill  the  hap- 
less parent  and  to  save  the  offspring  as  a  gift  to 
the  Zoological  Society  of  London. 

The  lamented  death  of  Mr.  Duncan,  who,  take 
him  all  in  all,  was,  perhaps,  the  very  man  of  all 
others  for  keeping  up  our  relations  with  this  grim 
potentate,  may  possibly  act  unfavorably  for  the 
interests  of  the  society,  but  we  have  so  much  con- 
fidence in  the  energy  of  the  management,  that  we 
doubt  not  that  this  misfortune,  great  as  it  is,  will 
not  be  suffered  long  to  cloud  the  fair  prospects 
which  were  opened  to  the  longing  eyes  of  natural- 
ists and  the  sight-seeing  public. 

Just  look  at  the  announcement  which  the  coun- 
cil of  the  Zoological  Society  have  been  enabled  to 
make  for  the  current  year.  They  state  that  thev 
have  already  received  advice  of  collections  of  va 
rious  importance,  which  are  in  progress  of  forma 
tion,  or  already  shipped  from  :— 

Singapore — by  Capt.  the  Hon.  H.  Keppel, 
R.  N. 

Ceylon — by  A.  Grant,  Esq.,  M.  D.,  and  A. 
Grace,  Esq.,  Deputy  Queen's  Advocate. 

Bombay — by  Alexander  Elphinston,  Esq.,  and 
A.  Shaw,  Esq.,  H.  E.  I.  C.  Civ.  S. 

Whydah— by  J.  Duncan,  Esq.,  H.  B.  M. 
Vice-Consul. 

Sta.  Lucia — by  Lieut.  Tyler,  R.  E. 

South  Carolina — by  J.  Davis,  Esq.,  M.  D. 

As  long  as  the  president  and  council  do  their 
duty  in  this  way,  and  consider  the  instruction  and 
amusement  of  thousands,  as  they  have  done,  by 
lowering  the  price  of  admission  on  Mondays  to 
sixpence,  they  will  receive  the  support  of  the  pub- 
lic ;  and  they  deserve  it. 


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16 

Of  the  African  form  of  rhinoceros,  three  spe- 
cies— Rhinoceros  bicornis,  Rhinoceros  keitloa,  and 
Rhinoceros  simus — are  preserved  in  the  well-ar- 
ranged zoological  collection  of  the  British  Mu- 
seum, which  owes  so  much  to  the  energetic  care 
of  Mr.  Gray ;  nor  do  we  despair  of  seeing  some, 
if  not  all,  of  these  great  pachyderms  in  life  and 
health  in  the  Regent's  Park.  Last  year  the 
Asiatic  rhinoceros  (Rhinoceros  Indicus)  died  there, 
after  a  healthy  existence  of  fifteen  years  in  the 
garden.  The  cause  of  death,  apparently,  was 
inflammation  of  the  lungs — a  disease  incident  to  the 
damp  and  foggy  atmosphere  arising  from  the  un- 
drained  clay  soil,  which  Carrie's  off  so  many  of  the 
animals  confined  there.  When  will  the  govern- 
ment take  in  hand  the  long-promised  work  of 
draining  that  park?  All  ye  dwellers  in  that  cap- 
tivating but — during  certain  months,  when  moist- 
ure is  most  prevalent — dangerous  locality,  read 
the  well-written  and  well-considered  report  of  Mr. 
Donaldson.  The  comfortable  dowagers  now  take 
their  airings  without  fear  of  the  dashing,  well- 
mounted  highwaymen,  who  formerly  took  toll  in 
Marylebone  Fields ;  but  malaria  still  lurks  there, 
shrouded  in  the  mist  that  rises  from  the  marshy 
ground  and  that  ornamental  but  unblessed  lake — 
for  no  stagnant  water  resting  upon  a  basin  of  clay 
can  ever  carry  healing  on  the  wings  of  its  evap- 
oration. 

But  to  return  to  the  deceased  rhinoceros.  On 
dissection  it  was  manifest  that  the  animal  had 
broken  a  rib,  probably  in  throwing  itself  heavily 
down  to  rest  in  its  uncouth  manner.  This  frac- 
ture might  have  injured  the  lungs  at  the  moment, 
and  the  subsequent  anchylosis  probably  produced 
a  pressure  which  accelerated  the  disease.  Short- 
ly before  death  the  animal  strained  to  vomit,  with- 
out effect,  with  the  exception  of  some  froth  tinged 
with  blood  at  the  mouth ;  and  soon  afterwards 
bloody  matter  was  discharged  at  the  nose.  These 
are  not  pleasant  particulars  ;  but  these  lines  may 
meet  the  eyes  of  some  of  those  interested  in  the 
management  of  the  animals,  and  may  afford  hints 
for  the  future. 

Poor  fellow,  he  was  stupidly  good-natured  in 
the  main,  and  would  let  the  visitors  rub  his  nose 
or  his  horn — which,  by  the  way,  he  never  per- 
mitted to  grow,  but  kept  it  constantly  rubbed 
down — or  tickle  him  about  the  eye,  or  place  their 
hands  in  the  folds  of  his  stout,  mail-like,,  buff  coat, 
where  the  skin,  as  we  heard  an  honest  yeoman, 
who  was  making  the  experiment,  say,  was  "  as 
so£  as  a  lady's!"  He  was  very  good  friends 
with  poor  old  Jack  the  elephant,  now  dead  and 
gone,  notwithstanding  the  stories  of  the  violent 
antipathy  which  the  two  huge  beasts  bear  to  each 
other,  and  how  the  rhinoceros  runs  his  horn  at 
last  into  the  elephant's  belly,  and  how  the  blood 
of  the  elephant  runs  into  the  eyes  of  the  rhinoce- 
ros and  blinds  him,  when  the  roc,  or  ruk,  pounces 
upon  the  combatants,  and  carries  them  both  off  in 
his  claws.  The  elephant  used  to  tickle  him  with 
his  trunk,  and  stroke  his  ears,  now  and  then  giv- 
ing his  tail  a  sly  pull ,  upon  which  the  rhinoceros 


would  cut  a  clumsy  caper,  wheel  round,  and  nib- 
ble the  elephant's  trunk  with  his  huge  flexible 
lips.  He  was  fond  of  going  into  the  capacious 
tank,  which  served  as  a  bath  for  him  and  the  el- 
ephant, who  were  alternately  let  out  into  the  en- 
closure ;  the  gambols  before-mentioned  having 
been  played  through  the  iron  railing,  when  the 
elephant  was  expatiating  in  the  great  enclosure, 
and  the  rhinoceros  was  out  in  the  small  space  be- 
fore its  apartment. 

When  the  rhinoceros  first  took  to  the  water, 
there  was  a  marked  difference  between  his  obsti- 
nate stupidity  and  the  sagacity  of  the  elephant 
under  the  same  circumstances.  The  bottom  of 
the  tank,  which  is  surmounted  by  an  elevated 
coping,  gradually  inclines  from  the  entrance,  till, 
at  the  opposite  extremity,  it  is  deep  enough  to 
permit  an  elephant  of  full  height,  and  of  the  mas- 
sive proportions  of  poor  Jack,  to  submerge  the 
whole  of  its  gigantic  body  ;  and  most  gratifying 
it  was  to  see  Jack  enjoy  the  cooling  comforts  of 
an  entire  submersion,  now  dipping  his  huge  head 
beneath  the  surface,  and  presently  raising  it  again, 
again  to  plunge  it  out  of  sight.  The  rhinoceros 
walked  in  well  enough  down  the  gradual  descent, 
and  when  he  got  out  of  his  depth  swam  boldly 
to  the  opposite  extremity.  Once  there,  however, 
he  seemed  to  have  no  idea  of  the  possibility  of  re- 
turning, but  remained  plunging  and  making  fruit- 
less efforts  to  get  out  over  the  raised  coping 
while  he  was  in  the  deep  water,  where  the  wall 
went  sheer  down  and  there  was  no  foothold.  It 
was  rather  a  nervous  time  for  those  who  wit- 
nessed the  violent  and  ungainly  efforts  of  the 
brute  ;  for  it  was  feared  that  he  would  then  and 
there  tire  himself  out,  and  sink  exhausted.  At 
last,  when  almost  overworn  by  his  useless  toil,  he 
was  half-forced,  half-coaxed  round,  and  when  his 
head  was  turned  towards  the  entrance,  he  swam 
thither  till  he  found  footing,  and  then  walked  out. 

His  muscular  power  was  prodigious.  The  iron 
railing  of  the  enclosure  was  strengthened  by  great 
iron  spurs  at  regular  distances.  He  would  insert 
the  anterior  part  of  his  enormous  head  between  the 
spur  and  the  upright,  and  then  give  powerful 
lateral  wrenches  till  he  fairly  prized  it  off.  Once 
he  got  out,  and,  without  doing  further  mischief, 
terminated  his  ramblings  with  a  pas  seul  in  a  bed 
of  scarlet  geraniums  :  the  condition  of  the  par- 
terre after  the  performance  may  be  imagined.  He 
was  then  secured,  and  led  back  to  his  place  of 
confinement. 

There  was  a  tortoise-like  look  about  him  that 
was  very  striking.  The  curiously-formed  upper 
lip,  the  testudinous  look  of  his  thick,  armor-like 
skin,  his  legs  and  feet,  all  favored  the  notion  of  a 
huge  warm-blooded  creature  made  after  the  pattern 
of  the  cold-blooded  testudinata,  with  improvements. 
For  he  was  active  in  his  way,  and  when  excited 
his  rush  was  terrific.  The  noise  of  the  roller, 
when  the  gardeners  were  rolling  the  gravel-walk 
that  flanks  the  place  where  he  was  suffered  to  go 
at  large,  had  the  most  exciting  effect  upon  him. 
He  would  be  standing  perfectly  still  at  the  further 


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17 


end  of  the  enclosure,  and  the  moment  he  heard  the 
noise  of  the  roller  in  motion,  round  he  would  turn, 
and  rush  down  towards  it  in  a  rampant  state,  till 
he  was  brought  up  by  the  strong  iron  railing, 
which  those  who  saw  these  paroxysms  began  to 
think  must  go  down  like  reeds  before  him. 

If  we  have  no  immediate  prospect  of  beholding 
the  living  forms  of  the  African  species  of  this 
genus,  we  have  a  very  fair  chance  of  soon  seeing 
the  two  other  pachyderms  mentioned  above  ;  and 
a  slight  sketch  of  their  habits  and  history  may  not 
come  amiss  to  those  who  are  not  merely  content 
with  sight-seeing,  but  like  to  know  something 
about  what  they  see. 

To  begin,  then,  with  the  African  elephant — 
Elephas  Africanus.  Notwithstanding  the  accounts 
frhich  we  read  relative  to  the  enormous  stature  of 
this  species  in  the  narratives  of  travellers  who 
have  come  suddenly  upon  them,  the  better  opinion 
is  that  it  is  smaller  than  the  Asiatic  elephant. 
The  principal  differences  are  visible  in  the  head, 
ears,  and  nails  of  the  feet.  The  contour  of  the 
head  is  round,  and  the  forehead  is  convex  instead 
of  concave  :  the  ears  are  considerably  longer  than 
those  of  its  Asiatic  congener,  and  on  each  hind- 
foot  the  African  elephant  has  only  three  nails, 
while  the  Asiatic  has  four. 

The  following  dimensions  of  a  male  elephant, 
which  was  killed  near  Bm,  some  ten  miles  from 
Kouka,  are  given  by  Major  Denham,  who  arrived 
at  the  place  where  the  huge  quarry  lay  just  as  the 
elephant,  which  was  not  more  than  twenty-five 
years  old,  had  breathed  his  last : — 

Length  from  the  proboscis  to  the 

tail, 25  ft.  6  inches. 

Proboscis, 7       6 

Small  teeth, 2  10 

Foot  longitudinally, 1        7 

Eye, 0       2  by  1£ 

From  the  foot  to  the  hip-bone,  .  .  9       6 

From  the  hip-bone  to  the  back, .  .  3       0 

Ear, 2       2  by  2  t> 

But  he  says  that  he  had  seen  much  larger 
elephants  than  this  alive ;  some,  he  adds,  he 
should  have  guessed  to  be  sixteen  feet  in  height, 
and  with  tusks  probably  exceeding  six  feet  in 
length.  Major  Denham,  however,  acknowledges 
that  the  elephant  whose  measurement  is  above 
given,  which  was  the  first  he  had  seen  dead,  was 
considered  of  more  than  common  bulk  and  stature. 

This  unfortunate  animal  was  brought  to  the 
ground  by  hamstringing,  and  was  eventually  de- 
spatched by  repeated  wounds  in  the  abdomen  and 
proboscis :  five  leaden  .balls  had  struck  him  about 
the  haunches,  in  the  course  of  the  chase,  but  they 
had  merely  penetrated  a  few  inches  into  his  flesh, 
and  appeared  to  give  him  but  little  uneasiness. 
The  whole  of  the  next  day  the  road  leading  to  the 
spot  where  he  lay  was  like  a  fair,  from  the  num- 
bers who  repaired  thither  for  the  sake  of  bringing 
off  a  part  of  the  flesh,  which,  Major  Denham  ob- 
serves, is  esteemed  by  all,  and  even  eaten  in  secret 
by  the  first  people  about  the  sheikh.  "  It  looks 


coarse,"  adds  the  major,  "but  is  better  flavored 
than  any  beef  I  found  in  the  country."  Upon  this 
occasion  whole  families  put  themselves  in  motion 
to  partake  of  the  spoil. 

The  manner  of  hunting  the  elephant  (says  Majoi 
Denham)  is  simply  this  : — From  ten  to  twenty 
horsemen  single  out  one  of  these  ponderous  animals, 
and,  separating  him  from  the  flock  by  screaming 
and  hallooing,  force  him  to  fly  with  all  his  speed ; 
after  wounding  him  under  the  tail,  if  they  can  there 
place  a  spear,  the  animal  becomes  enraged.  One 
horseman  then  rides  in  front,  whom  he  pursues 
with  earnestness  and  fury,  regardless  of  those  who 
press  on  his  rear,  notwithstanding  the  wounds  they 
inflict  on  him.  He  is  seldom  drawn  from  this  first 
object  of  pursuit ;  and  at  last,  wearied  and  trans- 
fixed with  spears,  his  blood  deluging  the  ground, 
he  breathes  his  last  under  the  knife  of  some  more 
venturesome  hunter  than  the  rest,  who  buries  his 
dagger  in  the  vulnerable  part  near  the  abdomen : 
for  this  purpose  he  will  creep  between  the  animal's 
hinder  legs,  and  apparently  expose  himself  to  the 
greatest  danger :  when  this  cannot  be  accom- 
plished, one  or  two  will  hamstring  him  while  he  is 
baited  in  the  front ;  and  this  giant  of  quadrupeds 
then  becomes  comparatively  an  easy  prey  to  his 
persecutors. 

In  one  of  his  hunting  expeditions  while  at 
Kouka,  Major  Denham  was  shooting  wild  fowl, 
when  one  of  the  sheikh's  people  came  galloping 
up  with  the  information  that  three  very  huge  ele- 
phants were  grazing  close  to  the  water.  When 
he  and  his  party  came  within  a  few  hundred  yards 
of  them,  all  the  persons  on  foot,  and  Major  Den- 
ham's  servant  on  a  mule,  were  ordered  to  halt, 
while  the  major  and  three  others  rode  up  "  to 
these  stupendous  animals." 

The  sheikh's  people  began  screeching  violently  ; 
and  although  the  beasts  at  first  appeared  to  treat 
the  approach  of  the  cavalcade  with  great  con- 
tempt ;  yet  after  a  little  they  moved  off,  erecting 
their  ears,  which  had  till  then  hung  flat  on  iheir 
shoulders,  giving  a  roar  that  shook  the  ground 
under  the  horsemen. 

One  (says  the  major)  was  an  immense  fellow,  I 
should  suppose  sixteen  feet  high ;  the  other  two 
were  females,  and  moved  away  rather  quickly, 
while  the  male  kept  in  the  rear,  as  if  to  guard  their 
retreat.  We  wheeled  swiftly  round  him ;  and 
Maramy,  (a  guide  sent  by  the  sheikh,)  casting  a 
spear  at  him,  which  struck  him  just  under  the  tail, 
and  seemed  to  give  him  about  as  much  pain  as 
when  we  prick  our  finger  with  a  pin,  the  huge 
beast  threw  up  his  proboscis  in  the  air  with  a  loud 
roar,  and  from  it  cast  such  a  volume  of  sand,  that, 
unprepared  as  I  was  for  such  an  event,  nearly 
blinded  me.  The  elephant  rarely,  if  ever,  attacks  ; 
and  it  is  only  when  irritated  that  he  is  dangerous  ; 
but  he  will  sometimes  rush  upon  a  man  and  horse, 
after  choking  them  with  dust,  and  destroy  them  in 
an  instant. 

Cut  off  from  his  companions,  the  elephant  took 
the  direction  leading  to  where  the  mule  and  the 
footmen  had  been  left.  They  quickly  fled  in  all 
directions ;  and  the  man  who  rode  the  mule, 
which  was  not  inclined  to  increase  its  pace,  was 
so  alarmed  that  he  did  not  get  the  better  of  the 


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LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


fright  for  the  whole  day.  The  major  and  his 
companions  pressed  the  elephant  very  close,  riding 
before,  hehind,  and  on  each  side  of  him;  and  his 
look  sometimes,  as  he  turned  his  head,  had  the 
effect  of  checking  instantly  the  speed  of  the  major's 
horse.  His  pace  never  exceeded  a  clumsy  rolling 
walk,  but  was  sufficient  to  keep  the  horses  at  a 
short  gallop.  Major  Denham  fired  a  ball  from 
each  barrel  of  his  gun  at  the  beast,  and  the  second, 
which  struck  his  ear,  seemed  to  give  him  a  mo- 
ment's uneasiness  only.  The  first,  which  struck 
him  on  the  body,  failed  in  making  the  least  im- 
pression ;  and,  after  giving  him  another  spear, 
which  flew  harmless  off  his  tough  hide,  he  was 
left  to  pursue  his  way. 

Eight  elephants  were  soon  afterwards  reported 
as  being  at  no  great  distance,  and  coming  towards 
the  party  ;  and  they  all  mounted  for  the  purpose 
of  chasing  away  the  beasts,  which  appeared  to  be 
unwilling  to  go,  and  did  not  even  turn  their  backs 
till  the  horsemen  were  quite  close  and  had  thrown 
several  spears  at  them.  The  flashes  from  the  pan 
of  the  gun  seemed  to  alarm  them  more  than  any- 
thing ;  but  they  retreated  very  majestically,  first 
throwing  out,  like  the  elephant  first  encountered, 
a  quantity  of  sand.  On  their  backs  were  a  num- 
ber of  birds  called  tuda,  (a  species  of  buphaga, 
probably,)  described  as  resembling  a  thrush  in 
shape  and  note,  and  represented  as  being  extreme- 
ly useful  to  the  elephant,  in  picking  off  the  vermin 
from  those  parts  which  it  is  not  in  his  power  to 
reach. 

In  his  excursion  to  Munga  and  the  Gambarou 
Major  Denham  and  his  party  came,  just  before 
sunset,  upon  a  herd  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  elephants. 
These  the  negroes  made  to  dance  and  frisk  like  so 
many  goats  by  beating  a  brass  basin  with  a  stick ; 
and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bornou  these  animals 
were  so  numerous  as  to  be  seen  near  the  Tchad 
in  herds  of  from  fifty  to  four  hundred. 

In  temper  the  African  elephant  is  considered  to 
be  more  ferocious  than  the  Asiatic,  which  may  be 
one  reason  that  it  is  not  now  tamed.  But  it  is 
clear  that  the  Carthaginians  availed  themselves  of 
its  services  in  war ;  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  the  elephants  which  Caesar  and  Pompey  ex- 
hibited in  the  amphitheatre  came  from  Africa. 

The  tusks  of  this  species  are  of  grand  dimen- 
sions, and  form  a  lucrative  branch  of  trade.  The 
ivvry  of  them  being  as  much  prized  in  modern 
times  as  it  was  by  the  ancients  for  furniture,  orna- 
mental purposes,  and,  above  all,  for  the  chrys- 
elephantine statues,  such  as  those  of  the  Minerva 
of  the  Parthenon,  and  of  the  Olympian  Jupiter,  in 
the  creation  of  whose  forms  Phidias  surpassed 
himself. 

Regard  being  had  to  the  ears,  the  shape  of  the 
Afiioan  species  appears  to  have  been  that  chosen 
by  Belial, 

A  fairer  person  lost  not  heaven, 
m  which  to  present  himself  to  Faust : 

Le  gouverneur  et  principal  maitre  du  Docteur 
Fauste,  vintvers  le  dit  Docteur  Fauste,  et  le  voulut 
risiter.  Le  Docteur  Fauste  n'eut  pas  un  petit  de 


peur,  pour  le  frayeur  qu'il  lui  fit ;  car  en  la  saison 
qui  etuit  de  1'ete,  il  vint  un  air  si  froid  du  diable, 
que  le  Docteur  Fauste  pensa  etre  tout  gele. 

Le  diable,  qui  s'appelloit  Belial,  dit  au  Docteur 
Fauste  :  Depuis  le  Septentrion,  oil  vous  demeurez, 
j'ai  vu  ta  pensee,  et  est  telle,  que  volontiers  tu 
pourvois  voir  quelqu'un  des  esprits  infernaux,  qui 
sont  princes,  pourtant  j'ai  voulu  m'apparoitre  a  toi, 
avec  mes  principaux  conseillers  et  serviteurs,  a  ce 
que  vous  aussi  aiez  ton  desir  accompli  d'une  telle 
valeur.  Le  Docteur  Fauste  repond  :  Orsus  o\i 
sont  ils  ? 

Mark  the  courage  of  Faust  under  the  influence 
of  this  Sarsar,  this  "  icy  wind  of  death."  The 
devil  was  conscious  that  the  great  magician  quailed 
not. 

Or  Belial  ^toit  apparu  au  Docteur  Fauste  en  la 
forme  d'un  elephant,  marquete,  et  aiant  1'epine  du 
dos  noire,  seulement  ses  oreilles  lui  pendoient  en 
has,  et  ses  yeux  tous  remplis  de  feu,  avec  de  grandes 
dents  blanches  comme  neige,  une  longue  trompe, 
qui  avoit  troisaunes  delongeur  demesuree,  et  avoit 
au  col  trois  serpens  volans. 

Ainsi  vindrent  au  Docteur  Fauste  les  esprits,  1'ur. 
apres  1'autre,  dans  sonpoisle  :  car  ils  n'eussent  peu 
etre  tous  a  la  fois. 

Or  Belial  les  montra  au  D.  Fauste  1'un  apres 
1'autre,  comment  ils  e"toient,  et  comment  ils  s'appel- 
loient.  Ilsvinrent  devantlui  les  sept  esprits  princi- 
paux, a  sgavoir  ;  lepremier,  Lucifer,  le  Maitre  Gou- 
verneur du  Docteur  Fauste,  lequel  se  decrit  ainsi. 
C'etoit  ungrandhomme,  et  etoitchevelu,  et  picofe", 
de  la  couleur  comme  des  glandes  de  chene  rouges, 
qui  avoientune  grande  queue  apres  eux. 

And  so  that  damned  spirit  passed  by. 

Apres  venoit  Behebub,  qui  avoit  les  cheveux 
peints  de  couleurs,  velu  par  tout  le  corps  ;  il  avoit 
une  tete  de  bceuf  avec  deux  oreilles  effroiables,  aussi 
tout  marquete  de  hampes,  et  chevelu,  avec  deux 
gros  floquets  si  rudes  comme  les  charains  du  foulon 
qui  font  dans  les  champs,  demi  verd  et  jaune,  qui 
flottoient  sur  les  floquets  d'en  has,  qui  etoient  comme 
d'un  four  tout  de  feu.  II  avoit  un  queue  de  dragon. 

This  apparition  seems  to  have  suggested  that 
which  so  terribly  disturbed  poor  old  Trunnion  ; 
but  the  next  evil  spirit  is  at  Faust's  study  door  : — 

Astaroth;  celui-ci  vint  en  la  forme  d'un  serpent, 
et  alloit  sur  la  queue  tout  droit :  il  n'avoit  point  de 
pieds,  sa  queue  avoit  des  couleurs  comme  de  bliques 
changeantes,  son  ventre  etoit  fort  gros,  il  avoit  deux 
petits  pieds  fort  cours,  tout  jaunes,  et  le  ventre  un 
peu  blanc  et  jaunatre  ;  le  col  tout  de  chastain  roux, 
et  une  pointe  un  fagon  de  piques  et  traits,  comme 
le  Herisson,  qui  avangoient  de  la  longeur  des  doigts. 

No  naturalist  could  have  given  a  more  precise 
description  of  this  devilish  Pict. 

Apre*s  vint  Satan,  tout  blance  et  gris,  et  mar- 
quete ;  il  avoit  la  tete  d'une  asne,  et  avoit  la  queue 
comme  d'un  chat,  et  les  comes  des  pieds  longues 
d'une  aune  ! 

And  so  he  vanished. 

Suivit  aussi  Anubry.  II  avoit  la  tete  d'un  chien 
noir  et  blanc,  et  des  mouchetures  blanches  sur  le 
noir,  et  sur  le  blanc  des  noires .  seulement  il  avoit  les 
pieds  et  les  oreilles  pendantes  comme  un  chien,  qui 
etoient  longues  de  quatres  aunes. 

This  must  have  been  the  "  dog  of  nile,  Anubis." 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


Apres  tous  ceux-ci  venoient  Dythican,  qui  e"toit 
d'une  aunede  long,  mais  il  avoit  seulement  le  corps 
d'une  oiseau,  qui  est  la  perdrix  :  il  avoit  seulement 
tout  le  col  verd  et  mouchete  ou  ombrage*. 

Were  it  not  for  the  green  neck  and  the  bizarre 
quality  of  the  plumage,  we  have  here  the  very 
familiar  that  tripped  along  at  the  feet  of  Charles 
V.  Titian  has  immortalized  both.* 

Le  derniers  fut  Drac,  avec  quatre  pieds  fort 
courts,  jaune  et  verd,  le  corps  par-dessus  flambant 
brun,  comme  du  feu  bleu,  et  sa  queue  rougedtre. 

This  last  grovelling  spirit  must  have  been  the 
red-tape  devil  of  the  party. 

Ces  sept  avec  Belial,  qui  sont  ces  conseillers 
d'entretien,  etoient  ainsi  habillez  de  couleurs  et 
facons,  quiont  etc  recitees. 

Then  came  a  rabble  of  fiends,  some  in  the  shapes 
of  unknown  creatures ;  others  less  ambitious,  taking 
the  forms  of  frogs,  fallow  deer,  red  deer,  bears, 
wolves,  apes,  hares,  buffaloes,  horses,  goats,  boar- 
pigs,  and  the  like ;  but  are  they  not  pictured  in 
the  fearful  nightmare  of  Walpurgis  night,  by  the 
hand  of  Retszch,  under  the  inspiration  of  Goethe? 

We  must  lay  down  this  fascinating  old  book,  f 
even  though  we  shut  it  in  the  face  of  our  reader, 
albeit  the  indomitable  Faust,  no  whit  abashed,  bids 
his  friend  "  go  on  ;"  and  stands  undaunted  the 
infernal  battle  wherein  all  these  diabolical  forms 
eat  each  other  up,  after  changing  to  as  many  shapes 
as  the  princess  in  the  Arabian  story,  without  even 
leaving  their  tails,  to  say  nothing  of  a  plague  of 
insects  which  afterwards  comes  upon  him  and 
drives  him  almost  mad  ;  till  bitten,  stung,  and 
blistered,  all  over  by  the  vilest  vermin,  he  leaves 
the  enchanted  atmosphere  of  Belial  and  his  study 
— not  beaten,  mind  you — and,  coming  forth  into 
the  blessed  air  of  nature,  finds  that  it  is  all  a  dia- 
bolical delusion,  and  that  hks  skin  is  unsullied  by 
a  single  insect,  parasitic  or  predatory. 

When  Faust  has  Mephlstopheles,  thereafter, 
assigned  to  him,  what  adventures  !  But  we  must 
not  be  tempted  further,  though  Alexander  the 
Great  himself  is  made  to  appear  to  the  emperor, 
Charles  V.,  as  vividly  as  the  phantoms  to  the  "  De- 
formed transformed,"  upon  the  adjuration  of  the 
Stranger  to  the 

Demons  heroic — 

Demons  who  wore, 
The  form  of  the  Stoic 

Or  Sophist  of  yore — 
Or  the  shape  of  each  victor 

From  Macedon's  boy. 

But  we  must  leave  the  magic  land  of  apparitions 
for  the  realities. of  nature,  and  introduce  such  of 
our  readers  as  feel  inclined  to  the  introduction,  to 
the  other  pachydermatous  form,  which  we  hope 
soon  to  behold  alive  in  the  flesh,  the  "Innog 
noTauiog  of  the  Greeks. 

What  an  uncouth  form  it  is,  propped  upon  four 

*  In  his  full-length  portrait  of  the  emperor,  with  a  tame 
partridge  at  his  feet. 

tHistoire  prodigieuse  et  lamentable  de  JEAN  FAUST, 
Grand  Magician,  avec  son  testament,  et  sa  vie  epouvant- 
able.  A  Cologne,  chez  les  Heritiers  de  Pierre  Marteau. 


19 

short  huge  legs,  looking  like  a  gigantic  wine-skin 
fit  for  the  revels  of  Polyphemus  ! 

"  The  Hippopotamus" — are  there  not  more  than 
one  species? 

That  there  are  several  fossil  species*  there  is  no 
doubt ;  but  whether  more  than  one  species  now 
exists  is  a  vexed  question. 

M.  Desmoulins  names  two — Hippopotamus  Ca- 
pensis,  and  H.  Senegalensis — resting  his  distinction, 
as  he  says,  on  osteological  discrepancies  as  strong 
as  those  on  which  Cuvier  depended,  when  he 
separated  the  great  fossil  hippopotamus  from  the 
recent  species  exhibited  at  the  Cape.  Nay,  M. 
Desmoulins  goes  further,  not  only  expressing  an 
opinion  that  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  hippopot- 
amus of  the  Nile  differs  from  the  two  above  men- 
tioned, but  hinting  that  there  may  be  two  species 
in  that  river.  The  difference  of  color  observed  by 
M.  Caillaud,  who  found  among  forty  hippopotami 
living  in  the  Upper  Nile  two  or  three  of  a  bluish- 
black  hue,  while  the  rest  were  reddish,  seems  to 
be  the  foundation  on  which  M.  Desmoulins  built 
his  last-named  suggestion.  But  color  is  often  a 
treacherous  guide  when  specific  character  is  the 
question  ;  and,  to  say  nothing  of  differences  due  to 
sex  and  age,  the  alteration  of  color  in  the  same 
individual  when  its  skin  is  dry,  when  it  is  moist, 
and  when  the  river  horse  is  taking  his  subaqueous 
walk,  has  been  remarked  by  more  than  one  observer. 
Le  Vaillant,  for  instance,  watched  the  progress  of 
one  at  the  bottom  of  Great  river,  from  the  top  of 
an  elevated  rock  which  advanced  into  the  stream, 
and  he  remarked,  that  its  color — which  is  grayish 
when  the  animal  is  dry,  and  bluish  when  the  skin 
is  only  moist — as  it  walked  along  under  the  water, 
appeared  to  be  of  a  deep  blue.  After  the  French 
traveller  had  satisfied  his  curiosity  by  looking  over 
'iis  unconscious  peripatetic,  as  a  certain  personage 
hot  to  be  named  to  ears  polite  is  said  to  look  over 
Lincoln,  he  watched  the  moment  when  it  came  to 
the  surface  to  breathe,  and  killed  it  with  a  well- 
directed  bullet,  to  the  great  joy  of  his  Hottentots, 
who,  in  their  surprise  at  the  feat,  and  delight  at 
the  size  of  the  beast,  called  it,  "  The  grandmother 
of  the  river." 

In  its  osteological  organization,  the  hippopota- 
mus approaches,  in  some  degree,  that  of  the  ox 
and  the  hog.  The  skull,  especially,  exhibits 
much  similarity  in  the  connection  of  its  bones,  and 
the  figure  of  its  sutures,  to  that  of  the  Sui'dae  ; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  it  bears  the  impress  of  its 
own  peculiarity. 

The  teeth  are  very  remarkable,  and,  especially 
the  molars,  vary  much  in  form,  number  and  posi- 
tion, according  to  the  growth  and  age  of  the  ani- 
mal. The  long  subcylindrical  incisors  and  ca- 
nines— the  latter  being  enormous  tusks  terminating 
in  a  sharpened  edge,  which  reminds  the  observer 
of  that  of  a  chisel — of  the  lower  jaw,  give  a  ter- 
rific aspect  to  the  mouth  when  it  is  open.  This 
tremendous  apparatus,  formed  principally  for  teas- 
ing and  bruising  more  than  grinding,  is  a  fit 

*  Hippopotami  major,  minutus,  mediiis,  for  example. 


20 


LEAVES   FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK   OF    A    NATURALIST. 


crushing  mill  for  the  coarse,  tough  plants  which 
are  transmitted  to  a  stomach  capable  of  contain- 
ing, in  a  full  grown  hippopotamus,  five  or  six 
bushels,  and  a  large  intestine  some  eight  inches 
in  diameter.  Three  bushels,  at  least,  of  half- 
masticated  vegetables  have  been  taken  from  the 
stomach  and  intestines  of  one  half-grown.  But  it 
is  impossible  to  look  upon  these  fearful  teeth 
without  thinking  of  defensive  and  offensive  wea- 
pons, fit  to  correct,  or  even  attack  a  crocodile,  if 
it  should  venture  to  take  liberties,  or  approach  too 
near,  in  its  plated  armor.  It  is  on  record  that, 
when  irritated  or  exasperated  by  wounds,  the  bite 
of  a  hippopotamus  has  sunk  a  boat.  Nor  would 
we  rely  so  much  upon  its  abstinence  from  animal 
food,  (though  we  do  not  give  implicit  credit  to  the 
lamentable  statement  in  Alexander's  letter  to 
Aristotle,  that  the  hippopotami,  rushing  from  the 
depths  of  the  river,  devoured  the  light  troops 
which  he  had  sent  to  swim  across,)  to  feel  quite 
certain  that  if  such  luckless  wanderers  were  to 
come  in  its  way  when  it  was  hungry  it  would  not 
give  a  zest  to  its  salads  with  a  tender  young  croc- 
odile or  two.  Major  Denham  states  that  the  flesh 
of  the  crocodile  is  extremely  fine,  that  it  has  firm 
green  fat  resembling  the  turtle,  and  that  the  cal- 
lipee  has  the  color,  firmness  and  flavor,  of  the 
finest  veal.  Mr.  Bullock  gave  me  the  same  ac- 
count of  the  flesh  of  the  alligator,  as  far  as  the 
similitude  to  veal  goes.  I  presume  both  travel- 
lers were  speaking  of  young  lacertians  ;  for  the 
patriarchs  give  out  a  very  strong  musky  smell. 

The  formidable  teeth  of  the  hippopotamus  are 
masked  when  the  animal  is  not  excited,  by  im- 
mense lips,  and  the  body  is  wrapped  in  a  coating 
of  fat,  which,  in  its  turn,  is  shielded  by  a  thick, 
smooth,  tough  hide — of  which  more  anon. 

The  longest  of  the  two  hippopotami  measured 
by  Zerenghi,  was  sixteen  feet  nine  inches  in 
length  ;  its  girth  was  fifteen  feet ;  its  height  six 
feet  and  a  half;  the  aperture  of  the  mouth  two 
feet  four  in  width ;  and  the  tusks  above  a  foot 
long,  clear  of  the  sockets. 

About  the  same  period  is  required  to  complete 
the  gestation  of  the  hippopotamus  as  that  neces- 
sary for  the  production  of  man — at  least,  so  it  is 
said,  and  probably  with  truth.  The  female 
calves  on  land ;  and  both  mother  and  offspring 
take  to  the  water  on  the  slightest  alarm.  This 
renders  the  capture  of  the  young  exceedingly  dif- 
ficult. An  eye-witness  assured  Thunberg  that  he 
watched  a  female  hippopotamus  which  had  gone 
op  from  a  neighboring  river,  and  lay  motionless 
with  his  company  till  the  calf  was  brought  forth, 
when  one  of  the  party  shot  the  poor  mother  dead. 
Up  sprang  the  Hottentots  from  their  hidden  lair, 
and  rushed  forward  to  secure  the  new-born  crea- 
ture ;  but  its  instinct  did  more  for  it  than  their 
reason  for  them — it  gained  the  bank,  threw  itself 
into  the  bosom  of  the  friendly  river,  and  escaped. 

Another  calf,  surprised  by  Sparrman's  party, 
was  not  so  fortunate.  On  the  28th  January, 
1766,  after  sunrise,  just  as  he  and  his  Hottentots 
were  thinking  of  leaving  their  posts  for  their  wag- 


ons, a  female  hippopotamus,  with  her  calf,  came 
from  some  other  pit  or  river,  to  take  up  their 
quarters  in  that  which  Sparrman  was  then  block- 
ading. While  she  was  waiting  at  a  rather  steep 
part  of  the  river 's  bank,  and  looking  after  her 
calf,  which  was  lame,  and  consequently  came  on 
but  slowly,  she  received  an  ill-directed  shot  from 
a  Hottentot  rejoicing  in  the  name  of  "  Flip" — 
whom  Sparrman,  in  his  wrath,  designates  as  the 
drowsiest  of  all  sublunary  beings,  declaring  he 
was  half  asleep  when  he  fired — and  immediately 
plunged  into  the  river.  One  of  the  Hottentots 
then  seized  the  calf,  and  held  it  by  its  hind  legs 
till  the  rest  of  the  party  came  to  his  aid  ;  when 
it  was  fast^  bound  and  borne  in  triumph  to  the 
wagons,  making  a  noise  much  like  a  hog  that  is 
going  to  be  killed,  but  more  shrill  and  harsh.  It 
struggled  hard,  and  was  very  unmanageable  ;  and, 
though  the  Hottentots  were  of  opinion  that  it  was 
not  more  than  a  fortnight,  or  at  most  three  weeks, 
old,  it  was  three  feet  and  a  half  in  length,  and 
two  feet  high.  When  it  was  let  loose  it  ceased 
crying  ;  and  after  the  Hottentots  had  passed  their 
hands  several  times  over  its  nose,  in  order  to  ac- 
custom it  to  their  effluvia,  it  directly  began  to  take 
to  them  ;  and  in  its  hunger,  poor  thing,  devoured 
the  droppings  of  the  oxen.  While  it  was  alive, 
Sparrman  made  a  drawing  of  it,  from  which  the 
plate  in  The  Swedish  Transactions  for  1778,  and 
that  in  his  own  Voyage,  was  taken,  and  then  the 
hapless  orphan  was  killed,  dissected  and  eaten,  in 
less  than  three  hours.  Sparrman  found  four 
stomachs,  the  first  nearly  empty,  containing  only 
a  few  lumps  of  cheese  or  curd  ;  in  the  second 
were  several  clots  of  caseous  matter,  and  a  great 
quantity  of  sand  and  mud  ;  the  third  contained 
lumps  of  caseous  matter  of  a  yellow  color,  and 
harder  consistence  than  the  others,  together  with 
several  leaves,  quite  whole  and  fresh,  and  some 
dirt ;  in  the  fourth  was  a  good  deal  of  dirt  with  a 
small  quantity  of  curds,  which  were  whiter  than 
those  in  any  of  the  other  stomachs.  The  intes- 
tinal canal  was  109  feet  long. 

This,  be  it  remembered,  was  a  baby.  What  a 
supply  must  be  requisite  for  the  full-grown  ani- 
mal ! 

Bitterly  does  the  husbandman,  whose  cultivated 
fields  lie  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  hippopotamus- 
haunted  river,  rue  its  voracity,  and  describe  it, 
unconsciously,  in  terms  long  ago  recorded  by  Ni- 
cander*  and  Diodorus,f  expressive  of  the  ruin  oc- 
casioned to  his  crops  by  these  enormous  reapers. 
They  were  regarded  as  the  symbol  of  the  destruc- 
tion-dealing Typhon,  and  were  worshipped,  as 
some  nations  worship  the  devil,  from  the  terror 
which  they  inspired.  In  modern  times,  every 
settler  and  every  native  makes  war  upon  them. 

*"H  innov  rov  Ntfion  vnio  Sa'ir  aiSaioiaaav 
Boaxti,  aqovQTiaiv  di  xaxip  im^iMirat  aoiijr. 

Theriac. 

t  Diodorus  says,  that  if  the  fecundity  of  the  beast  were 
greater,  it  would  be  ruinous  to  the  agriculture  of  Egypt ; 
and  Sonnini  states,  in  the  same  spirit,  that  these  animals 
devastated  whole  tracts  of  country,  and  were  as  formida- 
ble enemies  to  man  as  the  crocodile. 


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21 


Pit-falls,  ambushes,  the  rifle,  are  ready  for  them 
wherever  they  make  their  appearance  ;  to  say 
nothing  of  the  old  and  somewhat  apocryphal  story 
of  laying  lots  of  dried  peas  in  their  way — rather 
\n  expensive  proceeding,  one  should  think — which 
these  gluttonous  giants  devour,  and  then  drinking 
copiously,  the  peas  swell  within  them  till 'they 
burst.  The  beast  had  his  revenge,  sometimes  ; 
and  Sparrman,  for  one,  was  in  such  a  parlous 
fear,  when  one  came  out  of  the  stream  upon  his 
party,  with  a  hideous  cry,  and  "  as  swift  as  an 
arrow  from  a  bow,"  that  he  thought  the  river  had 
overflowed  its  banks,  and  that  he  should  be 
drowned.  After  this  confession,  he  thus  endeav- 
ors to  account  for  the  strange  impression  : — "  As 
the  hippopotamus,"  says  he,  "  when  it  is  newly 
come  up  out  of  the  water,  and  »is  wet  and  slimy, 
is  said  to  glisten  in  the  moonshine  like  a  fish,  it 
is  no  wonder  that  as  soon  as  I  took  my  handker- 
chief from  before  my  eyes,  it  should  appear  to 
me,  at  so  near  a  view  as  I  had  of  it,  like  a  column 
of  water,  which  seemed  to  threaten  to  carry  us 
off" and  drown  us  in  a  moment." 

The  voice  of  the  animal  is  described  as  some- 
thing between  grunting  and  neighing :  the  words 
heurh,  hurh,  heoh-hcoh,  are  used  by  Sparrman  to 
give  some  idea  of  its  cry  ;  the  two  first  words 
being  uttered  in  a  hoarse,  hut  sharp  and  tremulous 
sound,  resembling  the  grunting  of  other  animals, 
while  the  third  or  compound  word  is  sounded  ex- 
tremely quick,  and  is  not  unlike  the  neighing  of  a 
horse.  Others  describe  the  sound  as  more  resem- 
bling the  bellowing  of  a  buffalo  than  the  neighing 
of  a  horse — at  least,  just  before  death.  Some  call 
it  snorting,  some  neighing,  and  others  again 
grunting ;  and  it  has  been  likened  to  the  deep 
creaking  of  a  very  heavy  gate  or  door  on  its 
hinges. 

Neither  of  these  similes  convey  the  idea  of  any- 
thing very  melodious,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  this  clumsy  creature  has  some  music  in  his 
soul. 

Major  Denham  relates,  that  during  the  excursion 
to  Munga  and  the  Gambarou,  the  party  encamped 
on  the  borders  of  a  lake  frequented  by  hippopota- 
mi, and  intended  to  shoot  some  of  the  huge  in- 
mates. A  violent  thunder-storm  prevented  their 
sport ;  but  next  morning  they  had  a  full  opportu- 
nity of  convincing  themselves  that  these  uncouth 
animals  are  not  only  not  insensible  to  musical 
sounds,  but  strongly  attracted  to  them,  as  seals 
are  said  to  be,  even  though  the  music  should  not 
possess  the  softness  and  sweetness  of  the  Lydian 
measure.  As  the  major  and  his  suite  passed  along 
the  borders  of  the  Lake  Muggaby  at  sunrise,  the 
hippopotami  followed  the  drums  of  the  different 
chiefs  the  whole  length  of  the  water,  sometimes 
approaching  so  close  to  the  shore  that  the  water 
they  spouted  from  their  mouths  reached  the  persons 
who  were  passing  along  the  banks.  Major  Den- 
ham  counted  fifteen  at  one  time  sporting  on  the 
surface ;  and  his  servant  Columbus  shot  one  of 
them  in  the  head,  when  he  gave  so  loud  a  roar  as 


he  buried  himself  in  the  lake  that  all  the  others 
disappeared  in  an  instant. 

But  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  snortings 
and  neighings  of  this  See-pferd,  all  agree  that  it 
deserves  the  more  appetizing  name  of  Wasser  ochs, 
when  the  sapid  excellence  of  its  flesh  is  consid- 
ered. The  Sea-cow's  speck,  in  other  words,  the 
layer  of  fat  which  lies  immediately  below  the 
skin,  salted  and  dried,  is  highly  prized  by  the 
Cape  Town  epicure.  Of  the  teeth,  Odoardus 
Barbosa  justly  saith,  "  Hanno  gli  ippopotami  i 
denti,  come  gli  elefante  piccoli  et  e  migliore 
avorio  di  quello  de  gli  elefanti,  e  piti  bianco,  e 
piCk  forte,  e  di  maniera  che  non  perde  il  colore." 
For  this  last  reason  the  ivory  of  the  canine  teeth 
is  highly  valued  by  the  manufacturers  of  those 
pearly  rows  which  the  artist  knows  so  well  how 
to  form  when  he  makes  the  beautiful  dental  series 
of  rosy  eighteen  appear  between  the  withered  lips 
of  eighty.  Nor  were  the  ancients  ignorant  of  its 
value  in  a  somewhat  higher  branch  of  art.  Pau- 
sanius  relates  that  the  face  of  Cybele  was  formed 
of  the  teeth  of  these  animals. 

The  tough  skin  in  ancient  times  was  fashioned 
into  helmets  and  bucklers.  "  The  skin  or  hide  of 
his  backe  is  unpenetrable,  (whereof  are  made  tar- 
guets  and  head-pieces  of  doubty  proof  that  no 
weapon  wil  pierce,)  unlesse  it  be  soked  in  water 
or  some  liquor,"  saith  the  worthy  Philemon  Hol- 
land, in  his  translation  of  Pliny.  It  is,  in  these 
modern  days,  made  into  whips,  and  with  these 
instruments  terrible  punishments,  not  unfrequently 
fatal,  like  the  Russian  knout,  are  inflicted. 

Major  Denham  makes  one  shudder  when  he 
describes  the  execution  o'f  one  of  those  wickedly 
hypocritical  judgments,  which,  affecting  to-  avoid 
a  sentence  of  death,  inflicts  it  in  one  of  its-  most 
agonizing  forms. 

Oppressively  hot  as  the  weather  was,  the  sheikh,, 
he  states,  admitted  of  no  excuse  for  breaking  the 
Rhamadan,  and  any  man  who  was  caught  suffering 
his  thirst  to  get  the  better  of  him  in  an  African 
June,  or  visiting  his  wives  between  sunrise  and 
sunset,  was  sentenced  to  400  stripes  with  one  of 
these  deadly  whips. 

A  wretched  woman  bore  two  hundred  stripes — 
the  number  to  which  she  was  sentenced — within 
the  courtyard  of  the  palace,  and  was  afterwards 
carried  home  senseless. 

Her  paramour  received  his  punishment  in  the 
dender  or  square,  suspended  by  a  cloth  round  his 
middle — his  only  covering — and  supported  by 
eight  men.  An  immense  whip  of  one  thick  thong 
cut  from  the  skin  of  the  hippopotamus  was  first 
shown  to  him,  which  he  was  obliged  to  kiss  and 
acknowledge  the  justice  of  his  sentence.  Tho 
fatah  was  then  said  aloud,  and  two  powerful  slaves 
of  the  sheikh  inflicted  four  hundred  stripes,  reliev- 
ing each  other  every  thirty  or  forty  strokes. 
"  They  strike,"  says  the  major,  "  on  the  back, 
while  the  end  of  the  whip,  which  has  a  knob  or 
head,  winds  round  and  falls  on  the  breast  or  upper 
stomach  :  this  it  is  that  renders  these  punishments 


22 


LEAVES   FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF   A   NATURALIST. 


fatal.     After  the  first  two  hundred "  here 

the  dreadful  details  become  too  horrible.  "  *  *  * 
In  a  few  hours  after  he  had  taken  the  whole  four 
hundred  he  was  a  corpse.  The  agas,  kashellas, 
and  kadis  attend  on  these  occasions.  I  was  as- 
sured the  man  did  not  breathe  a  sigh,  audibly. 
Another  punishment  succeeded  this,  which,  as  it 
was  for  a  minor  offence — namely,  stealing  ten 
camels  and  selling  them — was  trifling,  as  they  only 
gave  him  one  hundred  stripes,  and  with  a  far  less 
terrific  weapon." 

In  ancient  history  the  hippopotamus  figures 
under  many  shapes  ;  some  giving  it  the  mane  of 
a  horse  and  the  hoofs  of  an  ox,  and  others  the  tail 
of  the  last-named  animal.  Whether  it  be  the 
behemoth  of  Job*  is  doubtful,  many  asserting  that 
it  is,  and  as  many  thinking  that  it  is  not :  among 
the  last  Milton  must  be  reckoned — 

Scarce  from  his  mould, 
Behemoth  biggest  born  of  earth  upheaved 
His  vastness  :  fleeced  the  flocks  and  bleating  rose, 
As  plants  :  ambiguous  between  sea  and  land 
The  river  horse  and  scaly  crocodile. f 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  accounts  of  the  an- 
cients, from  Herodotus  and  Aristotle  down  to  Pliny 
and  subsequent  writers,  should  be  so  extremely 
inaccurate,  while  the  representations  which  have 
come  down  to  us  are  comparatively  correct. 
'Take,  for  example,  the  coin  of  Hadrian,  with  a 
crocodile  at  the  side  of  Nilus  and  a  hippopotamus 
looking  up  at  the  river  god;  the  coin  of  Marcia 
•Olacilla  Severa ;  and  the  sculpture  on  the  plinth 
•  of  the  statue  of  the  Nile,  with  a  crocodile  orscink 
— probably  the  former— j-in  its  mouth. 

Besides,  one  should  think  that  some  had  seen 
•the  animal  itself.  "  Marcus  Scaurus  was  the  first 
•man,  who  in  his  plaies  and  games  that  he  set  out 
in  his  aedileship,  made  a  show  of  one  water-Horse 
-and  foure  Crocodiles  swimming  in  a  poole  or  mote 
made  for  the  time  during  those  solemnities."! 
'One,  also,  swelled  the  triumphal  pomp  of  Augus- 
tus after  his  victory  over  Cleopatra.  The  later 
•emperors  exhibited  them  frequently,  and  there  is 
every  reason  for  concluding  that  they  were  shown, 
no  longer  as  mere  objects  of  curiosity,  but  matched 
with  men.  The  bestiarus  must  have  thought  he 
had  an  ugly  customer  when  the  lanista  first  intro- 
duced a  hippopotamus  to  him  as  the  antagonist 
against  which  he  was  pitted.  The  third  Gordian 
gratified  the  people  with  the  display  of  thirty-two 
<  elephants,  ten  elks,  ten  tigers,  sixty  tame  lions, 


*  Chap.  xl.  10-19. 
t  Holland's  Pliny. 


Paradise  Lost,  vii.  470. 


thirty  tame  leopards,  ten  hyaenas,  a  thousand 
pair  of  gladiators,  one  hippopotamus,  one  rhinoc- 
eros, and  ten  camelopards.  These  gigantic 
"  games,"  as  they  were  called,  had  almost  always 
a  bloody  termination  ;  and  the  author  of  The  Last 
Days  of  Pompeii  caught  the  spirit  of  the  savage 
populace  when  he  made  one  of  them  shout  in  joy- 
ous anticipation — 

Ho  !  ho  !  for  the  merry,  merry  show, 
With  a  forest  of  faces  in  every  row  ; 
Lo  !  the  swordsmen,  bold  as  the  son  of  Alemsena, 
Sweep  side  by  side  o'er  the  hushed  arena. 
Tal  k  while  you  may,  you  will  hold  your  breath 
When  they  meet  in  the  grasp  of  the"  glowing  death  ! 
Tramp  !  tramp  !  how  gayly  they  go  ! 
.     Ho  !  ho  !  for  the  merry,  merry  show  ! 

The  ancients  believed  that  great  enmity  existed 
between  the  hippopotamus  and  the  crocodile  ;  and 
that  they  bear  no  very  good  will  to  each  other 
may  be  very  possible  ;  but  near  neighbors  as  they 
are,  dangerous  enough  perhaps,  Nature  has  so 
provided  for  them,  offensively  and  defensively,  that 
they,  most  probably,  maintain  an  armed  neutrality. 

The  hippopotamus  did  not  escape  the  medical 
practitioners  of  old.  Pliny  and  others  show  how 
it  enriched  the  pharmacopoeia.  We  spare  our 
readers  the  various  prescriptions,  merely  observing 
that  the  teeth  were  famous  against  the  tooth-ache, 
and  that  the  mother  who  could  procure  some  of  the 
brain  had  only  to  rub  the  gums  of  her  infant  with 
it  to  deliver  the  poor  dear  baby  from  the  torments 
of  teething.  We  must  not  omit  that  the  animal 
was  considered  a  master  of  the  art  of  healing,  from 
his  alleged  habit  of  Jetting  blood  by  pressing  the 
vein  of  his  leg  against  a  sharp  stake,  or  stout, 
broken,  sharp-pointed  reed,  when  his  constitution 
required  it. 

If  we  are  so  fortunate  as  to  overcome  the  dif- 
ficulties of  rearing  and  of  the  passage,  and  lodge 
the  young  hippopotamus,  now  sojourning  in  Egypt, 
safely  in  the  Regent's  Park,  how  different  will  the 
spirit  of  the  English  people,  who  will  crowd  to 
see  it,  be  from  that  with  which  the  sanguinary 
Romans,  high  and  low,  beheld  the  same  form  ! 
We  shall  have  the  privilege  of  peaceably  enjoying 
the  sight  of  this  peaceable  animal,  anxious,  in  its 
uncouth  way,  to  show  its  good  will  to  those  who 
show  good  will  to  it,  instead  of  lusting  for  the  ter- 
rible excitement  of  the  amphitheatre. 

Commodus,  on  one  occasion,  exhibited  five  ; 
and  descending  into  the  arena  butchered  some  of 
these  wretched  beasts  with  his  own  imperial  hand. 
Queen  Victoria,  accompanied  by  her  consort  and 
their  children,  the  hopes  of  Britain,  will  gracious- 
ly look  upon  the  unmolested  creature. 


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23 


LEAVES   FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF     A     NATU- 
RALIST. 

PART  V. 

JOHN  JONSTON,  quoting  Robertas  de  Monte, 
remarks,  that  "  in  the  yeer  1125  the  winter  was 
so  violent,  that  innumerable  eels  in  Brabant,  by 
reason  of  the  ice,  went  forth  of  the  lake,  which 
is  strange,  and  got  into  hay-ricks,  and  lay  hid 
there,  till  by  extream  cold  they  rotted  away.  And 
the  trees  at  last  had  scarce  any  leaves  put  forth  in 
May."  The  eels  might  as  well  have  staid  .pa- 
tiently in  their  lake  waiting  for  better  times,  as 
we  must  for  milder  weather.  Whether  the  May 
of  1850  is  to  be  like  the  May  in  1125  is  a  prob- 
lem yet  to  be  solved  ;  but  I  write  on  the  28th 
March,  after  a  bitter  easterly-wind-blowing  month 
of  it,  with  the  snow  on  the  ground,  the  sun  shin- 
ing, and  the  searching,  biting,  blasting  wind  in  the 
old  quarter.  There  was  thick  ice  yesterday  on 
the  water  in  St.  John's  Park.  The  dryness,  for 
weeks,  has  almost  equalled  that  which  afflicted 
Italy  in  the  322d  year  after  the  building  of  Rome, 
and  we  have  had  dust  more  than  enough  to  ran- 
som a  heptarchy  of  kings.  So  pressed  for  food 
were  the  blackbirds,  in  consequence  of  the  drought, 
that  they  ate  off  the  grass  of  the  pinks  and  carna- 
tions, making  them  look  as  if  that  plant-cutting 
bird,  the  Phytotoma,*  or  the  rodent  rabbit,  had 
been  at  them.  The  crocuses  look  pinched  with 
cold,  and  keep  their  petals  closed,  though  the 
sun's  rays  court  them,  as  if  in  mockery,  to  ex- 
pand. But  if  Phoebus  bears  the  nuptial  torch  of 
the  diurnal  flowers,  without  the  aid  of  Zephyrus, 
the  loves  of  the  plants  are  checked.  The  buds 
bide  their  time  snugly  wrapped  up  in  their  var- 
nished coats ;  but  still  nature  gives  signs  of  vege- 
table life.  The  "  daffodils  begin  to  peer" — 
daffodils 

That  come  before  the  swallow  dares,  and  take 
The  winds  of  March  with  beauty  ; 

and  the  primrose  and  violet  brave  the  severity  of 
the  season  from  their  lowly  but  sheltered  retreats. 
After  all,  the  time  has  been  genial  when  compared 
with  the  springs  of  1771  and  1838,  though  the 
impatience  with  which  many  of  us  regard  that 
fixture  the  weathercock,  day  after  day,  can  hardly 
be  wondered  at.  But  could  we  order  things  for 
the  better  in  the  long  run  ? 

A  distinguished  philosopher  and  poet,f  indeed, 
remarks,  that  the  suddenness  of  the  change  of  the 
wind  from  north-east  to  south-west  seems  to  show 
that  it  depends  on  some  minute  chemical  cause, 

*  Phytotoma  rara,  the  Chilian  Plant-cutter.  It  lives 
on  plants,  which  it  cuts  off  close  to  the  root,  and  often 
shears  off  many  more  than  it  wants,  leaving  them  on  the 
ground,  as  if  it  did  the  mischief  from  caprice'.  The 
peasants  consequently  employ  every  method  in  their 
power  for  its  destruction,  and  rewards  are  given  to  chil- 
dren who  take  their  eggs.  Molina  describes  the  bird  as 
about  the  size  of  a  quail,  with  a  rather  large  bill,  half  an 
inch  in  length,  conical,  straight,  a  little  pointed,  and 
serrated. 

t  Darwin.  ,JL    \£3 


which  if  it  was  discovered  might  probably,  like 
other  chemical  causes,  be  governed  by  human 
agency,  such  as  blowing  up  rocks  by  gunpowder, 
or  extracting  the  lightning  from  the  clouds.  If, 
adds  the  gifted  writer,  this  could  be  accomplished, 
it  would  be  the  most  happy  discovery  that  ever 
has  happened  to  these  northern  latitudes,  since  in 
this  country  the  north-east  winds  bring  frost,  and 
the  south-west  winds  are  attended  with  warmth 
and  moisture ;  and  he  argues,  that  if  the  inferior 
currents  of  air  could  be  kept  perpetually  from  the 
south-west  supplied  by  new  productions  of  air  at 
the  line,  which  he  makes  the  qfficina  a'eris  for  this 
supply,  or  by  superior  currents  flowing  in  a  con- 
trary direction,  the  vegetation  in  this  country 
would  be  doubled,  as  in  the  moist  African  valleys 
which  know  no  frosts  ;  the  numbers  of  its  inhabit- 
ants would  be  increased,  and  their  lives  prolonged  ; 
for  a  great  abundance  of  the  aged  and  infirm  of 
mankind,  as  well  as  many  birds  and  animals,  are 
destroyed  by  severe  continued  frosts  in  this  climate. 

And  thus  man  proposes.  See  what  he  would 
do  if  he  had  the  direction  of  the  clerk  of  the 
weather-office  !  Our  poetic  philosopher,  however, 
omits  to  tell  us  how  he  would  dispose  of  the 
superfluous  population  of  long-livers  in  this  Eden, 
or  how  the  tropical  temperature  would  suit 
hyperborean  constitutions.  In  such  a  paradise, 
threescore  would  be  no  burden,  and  all  the  gay 
grandsires  would  frisk  as  in  the  celebrated  Her* 
fordshire  May  dance,  in  which  figured  eight  chosen 
men  "  whose  ages  counted  together  made  eight 
hundred  yeers  compleat,  so  that  what  one  wanted 
of  a  hundred,  the  other  exceeded  a  hundred  as 
much."  Our  noble  106*168  would  emulate  "  the 
Countesse  of  Desmond,  who  lived  in  the  yeer 
1589,  and  after  ;  she  married  in  the  dayes  of 
Edward  the  fourth  ;  Verulam  saith,  she  thrioe 
renewed  her  teeth,  and  lived  a  hundred  and  fourty 
yeers."* 

All  this  looks  charming  upon  paper,  but,  de- 
pend upon  it,  the  winds  are  best  in  the  hand  of 
the  Great  Anemonologist  and  disposer  of  events, 

*  Jonston,  1657:  who  adds,  "Epimenides  of  Crete 
lived  150  yeers ;  Gorgi as  Siculus,  a  rhetorician,  108; 
Hippocrates  114  :  Terentia,  wife  of  Cicero,  103  ;  Clodia, 
daughter  of  Ofilius,  115,  though  when  she  was  young  she 
had  borne  fifteen  children.  What  shall  I  say  of  Luceia 
or  Galeria  Copiola  ?  She  lived  not  a  little  more  than  a 
hundred  yeers  ;  for  it  is  reported  that  for  a  hundred  yeers 
she  played  the  jester  upon  the  stage  :  it  may  be,  at  first 
she  acted  the  maid's  part,  and  at  last  an  old  wive's. 
Isra,  the  player  and  dancer,  was  in  her  youthfull  dayes 
brought  upon  the  stage :  how  old  she  was  then  is  not 
known,  but  after  99  yeers  from  that  time  she  was  again 
brought  upon  the  Theater,  not  to  act  her  part,  but  to  be 
showed  as  a  miracle  ;  when  Pompey  the  Great  dedicated 
the  Theater.  Also  she  was  again  showed  at  the  sports 
ordained  for  to  pray  for  the  health  of  Diyus  Augustus. 
Verstigan  writes,  that  at  Segovia,  in  Spain,  it  was  re- 
ported that  a  woman  lived  a  hundred  and  sixty  yeers. 
Franciscus  Alvarez  reports,  that  he  saw  an  Archbishop 
of  ^Ethiopia  a  hundred  and  fifty  yeers  old.  Buchanan 
testifies  that  one  Lauren  tins,  of  the  Orcades,  when  he 
was  a  hundred  and  fourty  yeers  old,  went  a  fishing  in  his 
boat  on  the  coldest  winter  commonly."  All,  these,  how- 
ever, with  our  own  old  Parr  to  boot,  must  hide  their 
diminished  youthful  heads  before  John  Jonston's  other 
example,  which  we  have  reserved  for  the  last.  "John 
of  Times,  that  was  armor-bearer  to  Charles  the  Great, 
lived  360  yeers  I" 


24 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


who  in  his  own  good  time  will  send  the  desired 
change. 

Still,  shivering  mortals  may  be  pardoned  for 
looking  with  intense  anxiety  for  the  winged  herald 
of  summer,  whose  advent  ever  has  been  and  ever 
will  be  hailed  by  man.  A  Greek  design  is  now 
before  me,  representing  three  persons  of  different 
ages.  The  one  on  the  left,  a  young  man  in  the 
flower  of  youth,  exclaims,  as  he  points  to  the  bird 
flying  above  him,  "Behold  a  swallow!"  The 
centre  figure,  a  man  of  more  advanced  but  still 
vigorous  age,  seated,  like  the  former,  has  just 
turned  his  up-lifted  head,  saying  —  "  True,  by  Her- 
cules!" and  at  the  same  moment  a  boy,  standing 
and  pointing  to  the  welcome  apparition,  cries, 
"  There  she  is."  All  this  the  eldest  personage 
ratifies  with  "  The  spring  is  come!"  Nearly 
the  same  exclamations  flow  through  a  line  of 
Aristophanes.* 

Speaking  of  the  American  barn  swallow,f 
Wilson  says,  "  We  welcome  their  first  appear- 
ance with  delight,  as  the  faithful  harbingers  and 
companions  of  flowery  spring  and  ruddy  summer  ; 
and  when,  after  a  long,  frost-bound,  and  boisterous 
winter,  we  hear  it  announced  that  '  the  swallows 
are  come,'  what  a  train  of  charming  ideas  are 
associated  with  the  simple  tidings."  The  human 
heart  was  equally  touched,  whether  it  was  beat- 
ing in  the  bosom  of  an  ancient  Greek  or  of  a 
modern  American. 

The  length  of  the  American  bird  is  seven 
inches,  and  its  alar  extent  thirteen.  The  bill  is 
black  ;  the  upper  part  of  the  head,  neck,  back, 
rump,  and  tail  coverts  steel  blue,  the  color  de- 
scending roundly  on  the  breast.  The  forehead 
and  chin  are  deep  chestnut,  and  the  lining  of  the 
wing,  belly,  and  vent,  light  chestnut.  The  wings 
and  tail  are  of  a  brown  or  sooty  black,  glossed 
with  reflections  of  green.  Tail  deeply  forked, 
the  two  external  feathers  being  an  inch  and  a  half 
longer  than  those  next  to  them,  and  tapering 
towards  their  ends  ;  each  feather,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  two  middle  ones,  is  marked  on  the 
inner  vane  with  an  oblong  white  spot.  The  eyes 
are  dark  hazel,  the  sides  of  the  mouth  of  a  yellow 
hue,  and  the  legs  dark  purple.  Such  is  the 
plumage  of  the  male. 

The  female  differs  from  her  mate  in  having  the 
under  parts  of  a  rufous  white  slightly  clouded  with 
a  rufous  hue,  and  her  external  tail  feathers  are 
shorter  than  those  of  the  male. 

They  are  nearly  a  week  in  finishing  their  nest, 
which  they  commence  early  in  May.  Wilson 
describes  it  as  being  in  the  form  of  an  inverted 
cone,  with  a  perpendicular  section  cut  off  on  that 
side  by  which  it  adheres  to  the  wood.  At  the 
top  it  has  an  extension  of  the  edge,  a  sort  of 
offset,  for  the  male  or  female  to  sit  on  occasion- 
ally ;  the  upper  diameter  is  about  six  inches  by 
five,  the  height  externally  seven  inches.  Mud 
mixed  with  fine  hay,  as  plasterers  mix  their  mor- 


iStf,  x.r.H.  —  Equites. 
T  Hirundo  rufa,  Gm.  ;  Hirundo  Americana,  Wilson. 


ar  with  hair  to  make  it  adhere  the  better,  and 
wearing  the  appearance  of  having  been  placed  in 
regular  strata  or  layers  from  side  to  side,  forms 
he  shell,  which  is  about  an  inch  in  thickness. 
The  interior  of  the  cone  is  filled  with  fine  hay 
well  stuffed  in,  and  above  the  hay  lies  a  handful 
of  very  large  downy  goose  feathers.  On  this  soft 
receptacle  repose  five  eggs,  white,  specked,  and 
spotted  all  over  with  reddish  brown.  A  slight 
flesh-colored  tinge  is  due  to  the  semi-transparency 
of  the  egg  shell. 

On  the  16th  of  May,  being  on  a  shooting  expe- 
dition on  the  top  of  Pocano  Mountain,  North- 
ampton, when  the  ice  on  that  and  on  several  suc- 
cessive mornings  was  more  than  a  quarter  of  an 
inch  thick,  Wilson  observed  with  surprise  a  pair 
of  these  swallows  which  had  taken  up  their  abode 
on  a  miserable  cabin  there.  It  was  then  about 
sunrise,  the  ground  white  with  hoar-frost,  and  the 
male  was  twittering  on  the  roof  by  the  side  of  his 
mate  with  great  sprightliness.*  The  man  of  the 
house  told  him  that  a  single  pair  came  regularly 
there  every  season,  and  built  their  nest  on  a  pro- 
jecting beam  under  the  eaves,  about  six  or  seven 
feet  from  the  ground.  At  the  bottom  of  the 
mountain,  in  a  large  barn  belonging  to  the  tavern 
there,  Wilson  counted  twenty  nests,  all  seemingly 
occupied.  In  the  woods,  he  says,  they  are  never 
met  with  ;  but  as  you  approach  a  farm  they  soon 
catch  the  eye,  cutting  their  gambols  in  the  air. 
Scarcely  a  barn  to  which  these  birds  can  find  ac- 
cess is  without  them  ;  and  as  public  feeling  is 
universally  in  their  favor,  they  are  seldom  or 
never  disturbed.  The  proprietor  of  the  large  barn 
above-mentioned,  a  German, assured  Wilson,  that  if 
a  man  permitted  the  swallows  to  be  shot,  his  cows 
would  give  bloody  milk,  and  also  that  no  barn  where 
swallows  frequented  would  ever  be  struck  with 
lightning  ;  "  I  nodded  assent,"  adds  this  charming 
and  amiable  writer ;  "  when  the  tenets  of  super- 
stition lean  to  the  side  of  humanity,  one  can  read- 
ily respect  them." 

Our  transatlantic  brethren  have  also  their 
"  chimney  swallow, "f  described  with  his  usual 
felicity  by  Wilson,  who  remarks  that  the  noise 
which  the  old  ones  make  in  passing  up  and  down 
the  funnel  has  some  resemblance  to  distant  thun- 
der. When  heavy  and  long-continued  rains  pre- 
vail, the  nest  loses  its  hold ;  if  this  disaster  oc- 
curs during  the  period  of  incubation,  the  eggs  are 
of  course  destroyed  when  the  loosened  nest  is 
precipitated  to  the  bottom."  But  kind  nature  has 
provided  for  the  safety  of  the  brood  if  the  misfor- 
tune happen  before  they  can  well  fly ;  for  the 
muscular  power  of  the  feet  and  the  sharpness  of 
the  claws  of  the  nestlings,  even  when  they  are 

*  Our  swallow  is  equally  matutinal ;  and  our  own  Gray 
has  truly  and  pathetically  associated  it  with  the  other 
early  rural  sounds : — 

The  breezy  call  of  incense-breathing  mom, 
The  swallow  twittering  from  the  straw-built  shed, 

The  cock's  shrill  clarion,  or  the  echoing  horn, 
No  more  shall  rouse  them  from  their  lowly  bed. 

t  Hirundo  pelasgia,  Linn. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


25 


blind — and  a  considerable  time  elapses  before  they 
can  see — are  remarkable,  and  the  houseless  young 
frequently  scramble  up  the  sides  of  the  vent,  to 
which  they  cling  like  squirrels,  and  are  often  fed 
by  the  parents  for  a  week  or  more  while  so  sit- 
uated. 

Mr.  Churchman,  a  correspondent  of  Wilson, 
counted  more  than  two  hundred  go  in  of  an  even- 
ing into  one  chimney  of  a  mansion.  Once  he 
saw  a  cat  come  upon  the  house,  and  place  herself 
near  the  chimney,  where  she  strove  to  catch  the 
birds  as  they  entered,  but  without  success.  Puss 
then  climbed  the  chimney-top,  and  there  took  her 
station.  The  birds,  nothing  daunted,  descended 
in  gyrations  without  seeming  to  regard  her, 
though  she  made  frequent  attempts  to  grab  them. 
"I  was  pleased,"  adds  good  Mr.  Churchman, 
"  to  see  that  they  all  escaped  her  fangs."  Wil- 
son, who  was  a  close  observer,  says  that  he  never 
knew  these  birds  to  resort  to  kitchen  chimneys 
where  fire  was  kept  in  summer.  He  thought  he 
had  noticed  them  enter  such  chimneys  for  the 
purpose  of  exploring,  but  he  observed  also  that 
they  immediately  ascended,  and  went  off,  on  find- 
ing fire  and  smoke. 

Then  there  is  "  the  purple  martin,"* — a  gen- 
eral favorite  with  the  Anglo-Americans,  and  even 
with  the  Indians.  Boxes  are  placed  for  the  wel- 
come birds  in  the  homesteads,  and  in  these  com- 
fortable lodgings  four  spotless  white  eggs,  very 
small  for  the  size  of  the  bird,  are  deposited. 

He  well  repays  the  hospitality. 

The  purple  martin,,  (says  the  author  last  quoted,) 
like  his  half-cousin  the  king-bird,  is  the  terror  of 
crows,  hawks,  and  eagles ;  these  he  attacks  when- 
ever they  make  their  appearance,  and  with  such 
vigor  and  rapidity  that  they  instantly  have  recourse 
to  flight.  So  well  known  is  this  to  the  lesser  birds 
and  to  the  domestic  poultry,  that  as  soon  as  they 
hear  the  martin's  voice  engaged  in  fight,  all  is 
alarm  and  consternation.  To  observe  with  what 
spirit  and  audacity  this  bird  dives  and  sweeps  upon 
and  around  the  hawk  or  eagle  is  astonishing  ;  he 
also  bestows  an  occasional  bastinading  on  the  king- 
bird when  he  finds  him  too  near  his  premises, 
though  he  will  at  any  time  instantly  cooperate  with 
him  in  attacking  the  common  enemy. 

Byron,  who  then  rarely,  if  ever,  tasted  meat, 
sitting  one  day  opposite  to  Moore,  who  was  dis- 
cussing a  beef-steak  with  hearty  good  will,  inquired 
whether  the  diet  did  not  make  him  savage?  The 
stimulating  food  of  the  pugnacious  purple  martin 
differs  from  all  the  rest  of  the  American  swallows  ; 
wasps  and  beetles,  particularly  those  called  by  the 
boys,  "  Goldsmiths,"  are  his  favorite  prey.  Wil- 
son took  four  of  these  large  beetles  from  the 
stomach  of  one  of  these  birds. 

But  we  must  leave  the  other  American  Hirun- 
dinidee,  though  the  temptation  be  strong ;  for  it  is 
impossible  not  to  be  struck  with  the  migration 
which  is  at  this  moment  in  progress  all  over  the 
world.  For  example,  we  have  it  on  undoubted 
authority  that  from  the  twenty-first  day  of  March 

*  Hirundo  purpurea,  Linn. ;  Progne  purpurea,  Bole. 


to  the  first  day  of  May,  at  least  one  hundred  mil- 
lions of  birds  enter  Pennsylvania  from  the  south 
— part  on  their  way  further  north,  and  part  to 
reside  during  the  season.  Wilson  ascertained 
during  his  residence  with  Mr.  Bartram,  in  the 
summer  of  1811,  that  in  the  Botanic  Garden  and 
the  adjoining  buildings,  comprehending  an  extent 
of  little  more  than  eight  acres,  not  less  than  fifty- 
one  pairs  of  birds  took  up  their  abode  and  built 
their  nests. 

Return  we  then  to  our  own  happy  land,  and 
our  own  swallows. 

^Elian  and  Plutarch  declare  that  the  fly  and 
the  swallow  are  the  only  animals  which  cannot  be 
tamed.  Pliny  gives  it  another  "  indocible"  com 
panion,  in  his  forty-fifth  chapter  setting  forth 
"  what  birds  are  not  apt  to  loarnc,  and  will  not  ba 
taught." 

And  now,  (says  the  Roman  zoologist,  speaking 
through  the  mouth  of  the  venerable  Philemon  Hol- 
land)— and  now  that  we  are  in  this  discourse  of  wit 
and  capacitie,  I  must  not  omit  to  note  that  of  birds 
the  swallow,  and  of  land  beasts  the  mouse  and  the 
rat,  are  very  untoward,  and  cannot  be  brought  to 
learn  ;  whereas  we  see  great  elephants  ready  to  do 
whatever  they  are  commanded ;  the  furious  lions 
brought  to  draw  under  the  yoke  ;  the  seals  within 
the  sea,  and  so  many  fishes  grow  to  be  tame  and 
gentle. 

Whether,  as  time  has  rolled  on,  swallows  have 
become  more  civilized  and  docile,  or  man  has 
arrived  at  greater  excellence  in  the  art  of  domes- 
ticating and  taming  animals,  are  questions  which 
are  not  for  discussion  here ;  but  certain  it  is  that 
swallows  become  very  familiar  in  confinement, 
and  to  the  observations  made  in  this  state  we  owe 
the  knowledge  that  their  moult  takes  place  in 
January  and  February,  for  they  have  been  so 
kept  for  many  months. 

In  September,  1800,  the  Rev.  Walter  Trevel- 
yan  wrote  from  Long  Witton,  Northumberland, 
in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  Bewick's  British  Birds, 
the  following  narrative,  which  is  so  simply  and 
beautifully  written,  and  gives  so  clear  an  account 
of  the  process  of  taming,  that  it  would  be  unjust 
to  recite  it  in  any  words  but  his  own  for  the  edifi- 
cation of  those  who  may  wish  to  make  the  experi- 
ment : — 

About  nine  weeks  ago,  (writes  the  good  clergy- 
man,) a  swallow  fell  down  one  of  our  chimneys, 
nearly  fledged,  and  was  able  to  fly  in  two  or  three 
days.  The  children  desired  they  might  try  to  rear 
him,  to  which  I  agreed,  fearing  the  old  ones  would 
desert  him  ;  and,  as  he  was  not  the  least  shy,  they 
succeeded  without  any  difficulty,  for  he  opened  his 
mouth  for  flies  as  fast  as  they  could  supply  them, 
and  was  regularly  fed  to  a  whistle.  In  a  few  days, 
perhaps  a  week,  they  used  to  take  him  into  the 
fields  with  them,  and  as  each  child  found  a  fly  and 
whistled,  the  little  bird  flew  for  his  prey  from  one 
to  another  ;  at  other  times  he  would  fly  round  about 
them  in  the  air,  but  always  descended  at  the  first 
call,  in  spite  of  the  constant  endeavors  of  the  wild 
swallows  to  seduce  him  away  :  for  which  purpose 
several  of  them  at  once  would  fly  about  him  in  all 
directions,  striving  to  drive  him  away  when  they 


26 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


saw  him  about  to  settle  on  one  of  the  children's 
hands,  extended  with  the  food.  He  would  very 
often  alight  on  the  children,  uncalled,  when  they 
were  walking  several  fields  distant  from  home. 

What  a  charming  sketch  of  innocence  and  be- 
nevolence, heightened  by  the  anxiety  of  the  pet's 
relations  to  win  him  away  from  beings  whom  they 
must  have  looked  upon  as  so  many  young  ogres  ! 
The  poor  flies,  it  is  true,  darken  the  picture  a 
little  ;  but  to  proceed  with  the  narrative  : — 

Our  little  inmate  was  never  made  a  prisoner  by 
being  put  into  a  cage,  but  always  ranged  about  the 
room  at  large  wherever  the  children  were,  and 
they  never  went  out  of  doors  without  taking  him 
with  them.  Sometimes  he  would  sit  on  their 
hands  or  heads  and  catch  flies  for  himself,  which  he 
soon  did  with  great  dexterity.  At  length,  finding 
it  take  up  too  much  of  their  time  to  supply  him 
with  food  enough  to  satisfy  his  appetite,  (for  I 
have  no  doubt  he  ate  from  seven  hundred  to  a 
thousand  flies  a-day,)  they  used  to  turn  him  out  of 
me  house,  shutting  the  window  to  prevent  his  re- 
turn for  two  or  three  hours  together,  in  hopes  he 
would  learn  to  cater  for  himself,  which  he  soon 
did  ;  but  still  was  no  less  tame,  always  answering 
their  call,  and  coming  in  at  the  window  to  them 
(of  his  own  accord)  frequently  every  day,  and  al- 
ways roosting  in  their  room,  which  he  has  regular- 
ly done  from  the  first  till  within  a  week  or  ten  days 
past.  -He  constantly  roosted  on  one  of  the  chil- 
dren's heads  till  their  bed-time ;  nor  was  he 
disturbed  by  the  child  moving  about,  or  even 
walking,  but  would  remain  perfectly  quiet  with 
his  head  under  his  wing,  till  he  was  put  away  for 
the  night  in  some  warm  corner,  for  he  liked  much 
warmth. 

The  kind  and  considerate  attempt  to  alienate 
the  attached  bird  from  its  little  friends  had  its 
effect. 

It  is  now  four  days  (writes  worthy  Mr.  Tre- 
velyan,  in  conclusion)  since  he  came  in  to  roost  in 
the  house,  and  though  he  did  not  then  show  any 
symptoms  of  shyness,  yet  he  is  evidently  becoming 
less  tame,  as  the  whistle  will  not  now  bring  him  to 
the  hand ;  nor  does  he  visit  us  as  formerly,  but  he 
always  acknowledges  it  when  within  hearing  by  a 
chirp,  and  by  flying  near.  Nothing  could  exceed 
his  lameness  for  about  six  weeks ;  and  I  have  no 
doubt  it  would  have  continued  the  same  had  we  not 
left  him  to  himself  as  much  as  we  could,  fearing  he 
would  be  so  perfectly  domesticated  that  he  would 
be  left  behind  at  the  time  of  migration,  and  of 
course  be  starved  in  the  winter  from  cold  and  hun- 
ger. 

And  so  ends  this  agreeable  story :  not,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  "  of  course"  that  the  confiding 
bird  would  be  starved  if  it  remained  ;  for  the  Rev. 
W.  F.  Cornish,  of  Totness,  kept  two  tame  swal- 
lows, one  for  a  year  and  a  half,  and  the  other  for 
two  years,  as  he  informed  Mr.  Yarrell. 

Wilson  has  proved  that  the  American  barn- 
swallow  may  be  easily  tamed,  and  he  observes 
that  they,  too,  soon  become  exceedingly  gentle  and 
familiar.  He  frequently  kept  them  in  his  room 
for  several  days  at  a  time,  when  they  employed 
themselves  in  catching  flies,  picking  them  from  his 
clothes  and  hair,  and  calling  out  occasionally  as 


they  observed  some  of  their  old  companions  pass- 
ing the  windows. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  very  questionable  kindness 
to  make  a  pet  of  a  creature  so  essentially  volatile. 
Look  at  the  bird.  Observe  its  tiny  legs  and  feet. 
See  how  the  whole  structure  is  fitted  for  an  aerial 
existence.  Look  at  the  prodigal  development  of 
wing,  and  the  powerful  muscles  destined  to  work 
the  alar  machinery,  enabling  the  bird  to  sustain 
itself  for  hours  in  the  air,  and  there  execute  such 
rapid  and  changing  turns  and  evolutions  as  the 
desultory  movements  of  its  insect  prey  require,  and 
with  a  celerity  that  the  eye  can  hardly  follow. 
Virgil  found  no  better  simile  for  the  velocity  and 
dexterity  exhibited  by  Juturna,  when  driving  her 
brother's  chariot  to  save  him  from  falling  into  the 
hands  of  ^Eneas ;  nor  Ariosto  for  the  rapidity  of 
the  ship  wherein  Orlando  Furioso  desired  to 
cleave  the  waters. 

The  multitudes  of  insects  destroyed  by  a  pair 
of  swallows  in  the  breeding  season  may  be  im- 
agined from  the  number  of  flies  that  went  to  make 
up  the  daily  rations  of  Mr.  Trevelyan's  tame  bird. 
Theocritus,  through  whose  verse  Nature  breathes, 
had  evidently  observed  the  multitudinous  visits 
and  departures  from  the  nest  for  the  purpose  of 
feeding  the  young,  and  alludes  to  them  with  his 
wonted  felicity  in  his  fourteenth  idyl.  Poetical 
fable,  too,  was  busy  with  the  bird,  and  the  lament- 
able story  of  the  daughters  of  Pandion  was  cele- 
brated, both  in  prose  and  poetry. 

Pendebant  peniiis,  quarum  petit  altera  silvas 
Allera  tecta  subit.* 

The  concluding  frightful  scene,  which  reminds 
one  of  the  horrible  revenge  of  Titus  Andronicus, 
with  the  additional  coup  de  theatre  of  Philomela 
throwing  the  head  of  Itylus  on  the  table  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  revolting  repast,  and  the  subse- 
quent change  of  Tereus  into  a  hoopoe,  Itylus  into 
a  pheasant,  Philomela  into  a  nightingale,  and  her 
sister  into  a  swallow — 

Manibus  Procne  pectus  signata  cruentis,t 
is    perhaps    as    striking   a  chapter    of  metamor- 
phoses as  Greek  or  Roman  ever  invented.     Mos- 
chus  makes  the  two  plaintive  sisters  prominent  in 
their  lamentations,  when 

All  the  birds  in  the  air  fell  to  sighing  and  sobbing, 

on  the  death  of  Bion.J  Nor  are  some  of  the 
stories  told  of  the  bird,  evidently  in  good  faith, 
unamusing  : — 

In  the  mouth  of  Nilus,  near  Heraclea,  in  ^Egypt, 
there  is  a  mighty  banke  or  causey  raised  only  of  a 
continuall  ranke  and  course  of  swallows'  nests, 
piled  one  upon  and  by  another  thicke,  for  the 
length  almost  of  half  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  which  is 
so  firme  and  strong,  that  being  opposed  against  the 
inundations  of  Nilus,  it  is  able  to  breake  the  force 

*  Ovid,  Metam.  6 

t  Gecrrg.  iv.  Ovid  also  takes  advantage  of  the  plu- 
mage to  help  the  fable  :— 

Nee  ad  hue  de  pectore  caedis 
Excessere  not<e,  signataque  sanguine  pluma  est. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


of  that  river  when  it  swelleth,  and  is  it  selfe  inex- 
pugnable :  a  piece  of  work  that  no  man  is  able  to 
turne  his  hand  unto.  In  the  same  .^Egypt,  neere 
unto  the  towne  Coptos,  there  is  an  island  conse- 
crated unto  the  goddesse  Isis,  which  every  yere 
these  swallows  do  rampier  and  fortifie,  for  feare 
lest  the  same  Nil  us  should  eat  the  banks  thereof, 
and  break  over  into  it.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
spring,  for  three  nights  together,  they  bring  to  the 
cape  of  that  Island  straw,  chafFe,  and  such-like 
stuffe,  to  strengthen  the  front  thereof:  and  for  the 
time,  they  ply  their  businesse  so  hard,  that  for  cer- 
taine  it  is  knowne,  many  of  them  have  died  with 
taking  such  paines  and  moiling  about  this  worke. 
And  verily  every  yeare  they  go  as  daily  to  this 
taske  againe,  as  the  spring  is  sure  to  come  about ; 
and  they  faile  not,  no  more  than  souldiers  that  by 
virtue  of  their  militarie  oath  and  obligation  go  forth 
to  service  and  warfare.* 

Talk  of  the  dykes  of  Holland  after  this  ! 

Such  services  to  the  Egyptians,  and  to  Isis  in 
particular,  deserved  a  reward,  and  accordingly 
Pliny  and  ^Elian  will  tell  you  that  if  their  eyes 
are  taken  out,  new  ones  will  come,  and  the  bird 
see  as  well  as  ever.  This  power  of  reproduction 
undoubtedly  exists  in  some  of  the  reptiles,  the 
newt  for  instance  ;  but  not  in  the  higher  warm- 
blooded animals.  Aristotle,  however,  declares, 
that  if  the  eyes  of  the  swallow's  nestlings  are 
pricked  they  will  heal,  and  leave  the  young  birds 
with  the  power  of  vision.  This  is  far  from  im- 
possible, especially  when  the  creature  is  very 
young,  for  the  humor  may  be  restored  under  the 
healed  cornea — but  pray,  gentle  reader,  do  not  try 
the  experiment — and  is  probably  the  only  author- 
ity on  which  Pliny  and  ^Elian  founded  their  radi- 
cal assertion  ;  but  a  story  always  gains  something 
as  it  goes.  "  It  is  commonly  said,  that  if  a  man 
pluck  the  eies  out  of  yong  serpents  -or  yong  swal- 
lows, they  wil  have  new  again  in  their  place,  "f 

Then,  again,  when  the  Uatta,  which  seem  to 
have  been  as  pernicious  to  the  eggs  and  nestlings 
of  the  swallow  as  they  were  to  the  bees,|  persecuted 
a  swallow's  nest,  the  parents,  in  the  good  old  times, 
dashed  down  to  the  first  parsley  bed  they  could  find, 
plucked  some  of  the  leaves,  and  dropped  them  into 
their  domicile,  when  away  scuttled  the  intrusive 
insects,  and  not  a  Uatta  dared  again  to  show  his 
antennae  there  as  long  as  the  crisp  vegetable  kept 
guard. 

Now,  really ! 

Inquire  of  ^Elian  ;  put  him  on  your  desk  for 
cross-examination,  and  see  if  you  can  shake  his 
evidence. 

But  if  the  foregoing  story  of  the  parsley  startles 
you — and  how  do  you  know  that  parsley  will  not 
drive  away  Uatla  ? — pray  listen  to  the  numerous 
ills  which  could  be  cured  by  means  of  these  hygeian 
creatures.  Take  the  ashes  of  the  young— but  of 
the  bank  martin  remember — and  you  have  "  a 
singular  and  soveraigne  remedy  for  the  deadly 
squinancy."§  Eat  them  whole,  and  defy  quartan 

*  Holland's  Pliny. 

t  Holland's  Pliny.  Pliny's  words  are,  "  Serpentium 
catuiis,  et  hirundinum  pullis,  si  quis  eruat,  renasci 
tradunt." 

t  Georg.   iv.  §  Holland's  Pliny. 


agues  ;  or,  if  you  find  it  unpleasant  to  go  the  whole 
bird,  masticate  their  hearts  with  honey,  or  take 
one  drachm  of  their  droppings  in  goats'  or  sheep's 
milk  before  the  quartan  access.  If  your  memory 
should  become  a  little  the  worse  for  wear,  their 
hearts,  well  mingled  with  cinnamon  and  ammomum, 
will  soon  brighten  you  up  again.  You  will  find 
water  of  swallows  taken  fasting,  especially  if  it  be 
followed  by  a  persevering  diet  on  their  flesh,  with 
their  ashes  mingled  in  the  drink  of  the  patient, 
as  infallible  a  remedy  for  epilepsy  as  any  of  the 
nostrums  of  the  present  day.  Weakness  of  sight, 
ophthalmia,  inflamed  tonsils,  are  a  few  only  of  the 
maladies  which  vanish  before  preparations  of  the 
bird.  The  nests  were  held  excellent  good  for 
angina,  and  their  blood  for  the  gout.  Then  there 
are  certain  small  stones  —  you  will  see  them, 
curious  reader,  figured  in  the  Metallotheca  Vaticana 
Michaelis  Mercati* — found  in  the  nestlings  on 
dissection,  which  cured  liver-complaints  if  sus- 
pended from  the  right  arm,  while  those  found  in 
the  nest  with  the  young  rendered  the  wearer  safe 
from  coughs.  With  regard  to  the  toilet  : — he 
who  wishes  to  forestal  the  advance  of  age,  which 
most  men  eschew,  may  come  out  with  a  venerable 
white  head,  and  the  d-devant  jeune  homme  with  a 
jet  black  one,  if  he  will  only  attend  to  the  prescrip- 
tions of  Galen  and  Marcellus  Kiranides,  and  mingle 
the  somewhat  unsavory  ingredients  which  they 
recommend  with  different  parts  and  secretions  of 
the  swallow.  If  you  find  you  don't  succeed,  you 
must  settle  your  accounts  with  the  authors  above 
named — Pliny,  Celsus,  Jacobus  Olivarius,  Hiero- 
nymus  Montuus,  and  other  learned  physicians, 
now,  as  the  old  covenanters  used  to  say,  "  gone, 
to  their  place." 

But,  seriously,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the 
copious  materia  medica  which  a  swallow  was  sup- 
posed to  carry  about  with  him  in  the  olden  time, 
there  can  be  little  or  no  doubt  that  the  lapilli  or 
little  stones  mentioned  by  Galen  and  others,  were 
actually  found  in  the  young  birds,  or  in  their  nests  ; 
otherwise  we  should  not  have  them  figured  in  such 
a  work  as  the  Metallotheca  Vaticana.  Their  pres- 
ence may  be  thus  accounted  for.  As  a  help  to 
the  digestion  of  their  insect  food,  the  old  swallows 
are  said  to  give  their  young  ones  occasional  doses 
of  sand  and  grit  ;  these  cohering,  may  be  formed 
into  the  stones  alluded  to,  and  may  be  either  cast — 
for  Mr.  Trevelyan  observed  that  the  swallow  casts 
after  the  fashion  of  an  hawk  or  owl — voided,  or 
found  in  the  bodies  of  the  young  on  dissection. 

This  looks  very  like  a  dissertation  on  swallows^ 
and  any  one  who  may  take  up  these  leaves  may 
feel  inclined  to  "  put  them  down"  under  the  terror 
of  the  many  species  that  remain  to  be  noticed  ;  but 
no  :  interesting  as  is  their  history,  but  one  other 
form  of  swallow,  if  swallow  it  may  be  called,  shall 
here  appear. 

The  wood-swallowf — the  Be-wowen  of  the  abo^ 

*  Folio.     Romae,  MDCCXIX.,  p.  183. 

t  Artamus  sordidus.  There  are  several  species  of 
Artami,  of  which  the  bird  under  consideration  appears  to- 
be  the  most  extensively  distributed.  "  No  other  species 
of  the  Australian  Arlami  with  which  I  am  acquainted,"" 


28 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


rigines  of  the  lowland  and  mountain  district  of 
Western  Australia,  and  the  Worle  of  those  of 
King  George's  Sound — bids  fair  to  become  as 
great  a  favorite  with  the  inhabitants  of  that  fifth 
quarter  of  the  globe,  destined  probably  to  be  the 
seat  of  a  great  empire  hereafter,  as  the  true  swal- 
low is  with  Europeans.  Few  birds  have  been 
more  bandied  about  by  systematic  ornithologists. 
Latham  made  it  a  thrush,  Cuvier  an  Ocypterus, 
and  Wagler  a  Leptopteryx.  The  Australian  col- 
onists appear  to  have  been  as  near  the  mark  as 
any  of  the  learned  when  they  gave  it  the  name 
which  it  still  bears  among  them,  though  they  may 
not  have  hit  the  bull's  eye. 

Mr.  Gould  describes  it  as  a  bird  of  pleasing 
actions,  often  taking  up  its  abode  and  incubating 
near  the  houses,  particularly  such  as  are  surrounded 
by  paddocks  and  open  pasture-lands,  skirted  by 
large  trees.  It  was  in  such  situations  as  these  in 
Van  Diemen's  Land,  that  this  enterprising  traveller 
and  excellent  ornithologist  first  observed  it  at  the 
commencement  of  spring.  The  species  was  there 
very  numerous  on  all  the  cleared  estates  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Derwent,  about  eight  or  ten  being 
seen  on  a  single  tree,  and  half  as  many  crowding 
against  each  other  on  the  same  dead  branch,  but 
never  in  such  numbers  as  to  deserve  the  appella- 
tion of  flocks.  Each  bird  appeared  to  act  inde- 
pendently of  the  other,  each,  as  the  desire  for  food 
prompted  it,  sallying  forth  from  the  branch,  to 
capture  a  passing  insect,  or  to  soar,  round  the  tree 
and  return  again  to  the  same  spot.  This  habit 
appears  to  me  to  indicate  some  relationship  to  the 
fly-catchers.  But  to  return  to  Mr.  Gould,  who 
goes  on  to  state,  that,  on  alighting,  it  repeatedly 
throws  up  and  closes  one  wing  at  a  time,  and 
spreads  the  tail  obliquely  prior  to  settling.  Some- 
times he  saw  a  few  perched  on  the  fence  surround- 
ing the  paddock,  on  which  they  frequently  de- 
scended like  starlings,  in  search  of  coleopterous 
and  other  insects.  It  is  not,  however,  he  adds, 
in  this  state  of  comparative  quiescence  that  this 
graceful  bird  is  seen  to  the  greatest  advantage, 
neither  is  it  that  kind  of  existence  for  which  its 
form  is  especially  adapted  ;  for  although  its  struc- 
ture, according  to  Mr.  Gould,  is  more  equally 
suited  for  terrestrial,  arboreal,  and  aerial  habits, 
than  that  of  any  other  species  which  he  had  ex- 
amined, the  form  of  its  wing,  he  observes,  at  once 
points  out  the  air  as  its  peculiar  province. 

Hence  it  is  (remarks  Mr.  Gould,  in  continuation) 
that  when  engaged  in  pursuit  of  the  insects,  which 
the  serene  and  warm  weather  has  enticed  from  their 
lurking-places  among  the  foliage  to  sport  in  higher 
regions,  this  beautiful  species  in  these  aerial  flights 
displays  its  greatest  beauty  while  soaring  above  in 
a  variety  of  easy  positions,  with  white-tipped  tail 
widely  spread. 

But  another  extraordinary  habit — which,  how- 
•ever,  Mr.  Gould  did  not  himself  observe — is  rep- 
writes  Mr.  Gould,  in  his  elegant  and  accurate  Birds  of 
Australia,  "  possesses  so  wide  a  range  from  east  to  west 
the  whole  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  continent,  as  wel 
as  the  island  of  Van  Diemeu's  Land,  being  alike  favored 
•with  its  presence." 


esented  in  one  of  the  exquisite  plates  which 
llustrate  the  grand  work  from  which  we  have 
>een  quoting. 

Mr.  Gilbert,  Mr.  Gould's  assistant,  gave  him 
he  following  information,  the  result  of  what  Mr. 
Gilbert  saw  at  Swan  river  : — 

The  greatest  peculiarity  in  the  habits  of  this  bird 
s  its  manner  of  suspending  itself  in  perfect  clusters, 
ike  a  swarm  of  bees  ;  a  few  birds  suspending  them- 
selves on  the  under  side  of  a  dead  branch,  while 
others  of  the  flock  attach  themselves  one  to  the  other 
n  such  numbers,  that  they  have  been  observed 
nearly  of  the  size  of  a  bushel  measure. 

This  habit  of  clustering  shows  itself  in  the  Eu- 
ropean swallow.  Sir  Charles  Wager  relates,  that 
in  the  spring  of  the  year,  as  he  came  into  sound- 
ings in  our  channel,  a  great  flock  of  swallows 
:ame  and  settled  on  all  his  rigging ;  every  rope, 
IB  says,  was  crowded.  "  They  hung  on  one  an- 
other like  a  swarm  of  bees  ;  the  decks  and  carving 
were  filled  with  them.  They  seemed  almost 
famished  and  spent,  and  were  only  feathers  and 
bones  ;  but,  being  recruited  with  a  night's  rest, 
took  their  flight  in  the  morning." 

These  weary  travellers  were  evidently  on  their 
way  northward,  and  must  have  passed  over 
France. 

Mr.  Gould  found  the  Australian  wood-swallow 
very  numerous  in  the  town  of  Perth,  until  about 
the  middle  of  April,  and  then  he  missed  it  sud- 
denly, and  did  not  observe  it  again  until  near  the 
end  of  May,  when  he  saw  it  in  countless  num- 
bers flying  in  company  with  the  common  swallows 
and  martens  over  a  lake  about  ten  miles  north  of 
the  town — so  numerous,  indeed,  that  he  describes 
them  as  darkening  the  water  as  they  flew  over  it. 
Its  voice,  he  says,  greatly  resembles  that  of  the 
common  swallow  in  character,  but  it  is  much  more 
harsh.  He  describes  the  stomach  as  muscular  and 
capacious,  and  the  food  as  consisting  of  insects 
generally. 

In  Van  Dieman's  Land  it  may,  Mr.  Gould  adds, 
be  regarded  as  strictly  migratory.  It  arrives 
there,  according  to  his  observation,  in  October,  the 
beginning  of  the  Australian  summer,  and  after 
rearing  at  least  two  broods,  departs  again  north- 
wards in  November.  A  scattered  few  remain 
throughout  the  year  on  the  continent  in  all  the 
localities  favorable  to  their  habits,  the  number 
being  regulated  by  the  supply  of  insect  food.  He 
remarks,  that  specimens  from  Swan  river,  South 
Australia,  and  New  South  Wales,  present  no 
difference,  either  in  size  or  coloring,  while  those 
from  Van  Diemen's  Land  are  invariably  larger  in 
all  their  admeasurements,  and  are  also  of  a  deeper 
color. 

The  general  season  of  incubation  is  from  Sep- 
tember to  December,  and  the  situation  of  the  nest 
much  varied.  Mr.  Gould  saw  one  in  a  thickly- 
foliaged  bush  near  the  ground  ;  others,  in  a  naked 
fork,  on  the  side  of  the  bole  of  a  tree,  in  a  niche 
formed  by  a  portion  of  the  bark  having  been  sepa- 
rated from  the  trunk,  &c.  The  nest  itself  he 
describes  as  rather  shallow,  of  a  rounded  form, 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


29 


about  five  inches  in  diameter,  and  composed  of 
fine  twigs,  neatly  lined  with  fibrous  roots.  He 
observed  that  the  nests  found  in  Van  Diemen's 
Land  were  larger,  more  compact,  and  more  neatly 
formed,  than  those  on  the  continent  of  Australia  ; 
and  one  which  was  shown  to  him  by  Mr.  Justice 
Montague,  near  Hobart  Town,  was  placed  at  the 
extremity  of  a  small  leafy  branch.  The  nest 
figured  by  Mr.  Gould  is  so  represented. 

By  the  way,  Mr.  Yarrel  gives,  in  his  highly 
interesting  British  Birds,  a  vignette  executed  from 
a  drawing  by  Mr.  Edward  Cooke  for  the  late  Mr. 
Wells,  of  Redleaf.  It  represents  a  nest  of  our 
common  swallow  built  on  a  bough  of  a  sycamore, 
which  hung  low  over  a  pond  at  the  Moat,  Pens- 
hurst,  in  Ken*  in  the  summer  of  1832. 

Mr.  Gould  describes  the  eggs  of  Artamus  sor- 
didus,  which  are  four  in  number,  as  differing 
much  in  the  disposition  of  their  markings,  of  a 
dull  white  ground  color,  spotted  and  dashed  with 
dark  umber  brown  ;  in  some,  he  says,  a  second 
series  of  grayish  spots  appear,  as  if  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  shell ;  medium  length  eleven  lines, 
and  breadth  eight. 

The  head,  neck,  and  the  whole  of  the  body  of 
the  bird  are  of  a  sooty  gray;  the  wings  dark-bluish 
black  ;  the  external  edges  of  the  second,  third, 
and  fourth  primaries,  white.  The  tail  is  black, 
with  a  tinge  of  blue,  and  all  its  feathers,  except 
the  two  middle  ones,  have  extensive  white  tips. 
The  irides  are  dark  brown,  and  the  blue  bill  has  a 
black  tip.  The  feet  are  lead  color  ;'  sexes  alike 
in  color,  the  female  rather  the  smaller ;  length, 
nearly  six  inches.  Mr.  Gould  remarks,  that  the 
young  have  an  irregular  stripe  of  dirty  white 
down  the  centre  of  each  feather  of  the  upper  sur- 
face, and  are  mottled  with  the  same  on  the  under 
surface. 

April  1. — Yesterday  the  weathercocks,  which 
had  so  long  been  fixtures,  veered  round — 

Grat&  vice  veris  et  Favoni. 

Every  bud  is  now  bursting,  every  seed  is 
swelling  now.  All  Nature  is  prolific,  reminding 
us  of  the  great  egg  of  Night  that  floated  in  chaos, 
and  was  broken  by  the  horns  of  the  celestial  bull. 
From  this  egg*  sprang  up  like  a  blossom  Eros,  the 
lovely,  the  desirable,  with  his  glossy,  golden 
oinionsj — Eros,  the  elder  Cupid,  the  personifica- 
tion of  divine  love. 

All  sublunary  eggs,  in  which  the  principle  of 
life  glows,  are  now  advancing ;  and  the  remem- 
brance of  a  promise  to  relate  the  attempt  of  the 
poor  incarcerated  white-headed  eagles  to  incubate 
rises. 

The  female  white-headed  eagle  (Halia'itos 
leucocephalus)  laid  her  first  egg  on  the  5th  of 

*  The  TtQMTov  wov,  the  first  great  egg  or  seed  of  the 
ancient  philosophy.  A  serpent  was  coiled  round  it,  em- 
blematical of  the  eternal  divine  wisdom.  Its  image  was 
worshipped  in  the  temple  of  the  Dioscuri,  Helen's 
brothers,  as  a  representation,  probably,  of  Leda's  produc- 
tion. The  breaking  of  the  egg  by  the  horns  of  the  bull 
is  typical  of  the  genial  effect  of  spring. 

t  Aristophanes,  Aves,  1.  694.    Bekker. 

3 


April,  1845,  and  a  second  on  the  8th  of  the  same 
month,  on  a  rough  nest,  composed  of  litter  and 
twigs,  &c.,  on  the  floor  of  her  apartment  in  the 
eagle-hut  at  the  garden  in  the  Regent's  Park. 

What  a  prison  for  a  bird  whose  home  is  on  the 
rock  that  shoots  up  from  the  lake,  or  the  cliffs 
which  overhang  the  mighty  river  or  the  wide  sea ! 
Niagara  is  a  favorite  resort  of  the  white-headed,  or 
bald  eagle — the  latter  appellation  a  misnomer,  for 
no  bird  has  a  better  feathered  head.  There  it 
sits  or  soars  on  the  watch  for  the  fish,  and  also  for 
the  carcases  of  squirrels,  deer,  bears,  and  other 
quadrupeds,  which,  in  their  attempts  to  cross  the 
river  above  the  falls,  have  been  caught  by  the 
current  and  dashed  down  those  awful  cataracts. 

It  is  a  very  powerful  bird,  three  feet  long,  and 
seven  in  alar  extent ;  and- has  been  seen  flying  off 
with  a  lamb  ten  days  old  ;  but  it  let  the  prey  fall 
from  a  height  of  ten  or  twelve  feet,  in  consequence 
of  its  struggles  and  the  shouts  of  the  spectator, 
who  ran  with  loud  halloos  after  the  depredator  ; 
the  poor  lamb's  back,  however,  was  broken  by  the 
crushing  swoop.  Nay,  a  white-headed  eagle  has 
been  known  to  seize  and  throw  down  an  infant, 
and  drag  it  for  a  short  distance,  when  the  cries  of 
the  mother,  who  had  set  down  the  little  innocent 
to  amuse  itself  while  she  weeded  her  garden,  and 
the  giving  way  of  the  child's  dress,  a  portion  of 
which  the  eagle  bore  off,  saved  its  life.  Thus 
was  a  second  scene  of  the  "  Bird  and  Bantling" 
happily  cut  short. 

It  will  also  attack  old  and  sickly  sheep,  aiming 
furiously  at  their  eyes. 

In  short,  he  is  a  most  determined  brigand, 
whose  portrait  has  been  admirably  painted  by  Wil- 
son. Look  on  this  picture  : — 

Elevated  on  the  high  dead  limb  of  some  gigantic 
tree,  that  commands  a  wide  view  of  the  neighboring 
shore  and  ocean,  he  seems  calmly  to  contemplate 
the  motions  of  the  various  feathered  tribes  that  pur- 
sue their  busy  avocations  below  ; — the  snow-white 
gulls  slowly  winnowing  the  air ;  the  busy  tringse 
coursing  along  the  sands  ;  trains  of  ducks  streaming 
over  the  surface  ;  silent  and  watchful  cranes,  intent 
and  wading  ;  clamorous  crows,  and  all  the  winged 
multitudes  that  subsist  by  the  bounty  of  this  vast 
liquid  magazine  of  Nature.  High  over  all  these 
hovers  one  whose  action  instantly  arrests  all  his 
attention.  By  his  wide  curvature  of  wing  and 
sudden  suspension  in  the  air,  he  knows  him  to  be 
the  fish-hawk,  settling  over  some  devoted  victim 
of  the  deep.  His  eye  kindles  at  the  sight,  and 
balancing  himself,  with  half-opened  wings  on  the 
branch,  he  watches  the  result.  Down,  rapid  as  an 
arrow  from  heaven,  descends  the  distant  object  of 
his  attention,  the  roar  of  its  wings  reaching  the  ear 
as  it  disappears  in  the  deep,  making  the  surges 
foam  around.  At  this  moment  the  eager  looks  of 
the  eagle  are  all  ardor,  and,  levelling  his  neck  for 
flight,  he  sees  the  fish-hawk  once  more  emerge 
struggling  with  his  prey,  and  mounting  in  the  air 
with  screams  of  exultation.  These  are  the  signal 
for  our  hero,  who,  launching  into  the  air,  instantly 
gives  chase,  soon  gains  on  the  fish-hawk  ;  each  ex- 
erts his  utmost  to  mount  above  the  other,  display- 
ing in  these  rencontres  the  most  elegant  and  sublime 
aerial  evolutions.  The  unimcumbered  eagle  rap- 


30 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


idly  advances,  and  is  just  on  the  point  of  reaching 
his  opponent,  when,  with  a  sudden  scream  probably 
of  despair  and  honest  execration,  the  latter  drops 
his  fish.  The  eagle,  poising  himself  for  a  moment, 
as  if  to  take  a  more  certain  aim,  descends  like  a 
whirlwind,  snatches  it  in  his  grasp  ere  it  reaches 
the  water,  and  bears  his  ill-gotton  booty  silently 
away  to  the  woods. 

This  is  very  beautiful  and  very  poetical,  and, 
what  is  more,  very  true.  But  there  are  two  sides 
to  a  question,  as  there  were  to  the  shield  about 
which  the  two  silly  knights  fought.  Turn  we 
now  to  honest,  homely  Benjamin  Franklin's  view 
of  the  case. 

In  his  letter  to  Mrs.  Bache,  dated  Passy,  Jan- 
uary 26,  1784,  he  observes,  that  the  gentleman 
who  made  his  voyage .  to  France  to  provide  the 
ribands  and  medals  nad  executed  his  commis- 


To  me  (says  that  venerable  philosopher  and 
sturdy  republican)  they  seem  tolerably  done ;  but 
all  such  things  are  criticized.  Some  find  fault  with 
the  Latin,  as  wanting  classical  elegance  and  cor- 
rectness ;  and  since  our  nine  universities  were  not 
able  to  furnish  better  Latin,  it  was  a  pity,  they  say, 
that  the  mottoes  had  not  been  in  English.  Others 
object  to  the  title,  as  not  properly  assumable  by 
any  but  General  Washington  and  a  few  others  who 
served  without  pay.  Others  object  to  the  bald 
eagle,  as  looking  like  a  dindon,  or  turkey. 

For  my  own  part,  I  wish  the  bald  eagle  had  not 
been  chosen  as  the  representative  of  our  country  ; 
he  is  a  bird  of  bad  moral  character ;  he  does  not 
get  his  living  honestly.  You  may  have  seen  him 
perched  on  some  dead  tree,  where,  too  lazy  to  fish 
for  himself,  he  watches  the  labor  of  the  fishing- 
hawk  ;  and  when  that  diligent  bird  has  at  length 
taken  a  fish,  and  is  bearing  it  to  his  nest  for  the 
support  of  his  mate  and  young  ones,  the  bald  eagle 
pursues  him  and  takes  it  from  him.  With  all  this 
injustice  he  is  never  in  good  case,  but,  like  those 
among  men  who  live  by  sharping  and  robbing,  he 
is  generally  poor,  and  often  very  lousy.  Besides, 
he  is  a  rank  coward  ;  the  little  king-bird,  not  bigger 
than  a  sparrow,  attacks  him  boldly,  and  drives  him 
out  of  the  district.  He  is,  therefore,  by  no  means 
a  proper  emblem  for  the  brave  and  honest  Cincin- 
nati of  America,  who  have  driven  all  the  fo'n^-birds 
from  our  country,  though  exactly  fit  for  that  order 
of  knights  which  the  French  call  Chevaliers  d' In- 
dustrie. I  am,  on  this  account,  not  displeased  that 
the  figure  is  not  known  as  a  bald  eagle,  but  looks 
more  like  a  turkey.  For,  in  truth,  the  turkey  is, 
in  comparison,  a  much  more  respectable  bird,  and 
withal  a  true  original  native  of  America.  Eagles 
have  been  found  in  all  countries,  but  the  turkey 
was  peculiar  to  ours ;  the  first  of  the  species  seen 
in  Europe  being  brought  to  France  by  the  Jesuits 
from  Canada,  and  served  up  at  the  wedding-table 
of  Charles  IX. 

He  is,  besides,  (though  a  little  vain  and  silly,  't  is 
true,  but  not  the  worse  emblem  for  that,)  a  bird  of 
courage,  and  would  not  hesitate  to  attack  a  grena- 
dier of  the  British  Guards,  who  should  presume  to 
invade  his  farm-yard  with  a  red  coat  on. 

The  editor  of  this  interesting  correspondence 
remarks  that  a  learned  friend  had  observed  to 
him,  that  the  assertion  about  the  first  turkey  being 
brought  to  France,  &c.,  is  a  mistake,  as  turkeys 


were  found  in  great  plenty  by  Cortes  when  he  in- 
vaded and  conquered  Mexico,  before  the  time  of 
Charles  IX.,  and  that  this,  and  their  being 
brought  to  old  Spain,  is  mentioned  by  Peter  Mar- 
tyr of  Angelina,  who  was  secretary  to  the  council 
of  the  Indies,  established  immediately  after  the 
discovery  of  America,  and  personally  acquainted 
with  Columbus. 

But,  after  all,  the  white-headed  eagle  is  a  bold 
fellow ;  and  Mr.  Gardiner  relates,  that  when 
riding  within  five  or  six  rods  of  one,  the  bird,  by 
raising  his  feathers  and  his  general  defying  de- 
meanor, seemed  willing  to  dispute  the  ground 
with  its  owner. 

As  for  the  vultures,  the  eagle  treats  them  as 
so  much  dirt  ;  and,  indeed,  they  are  little  better. 
He  has  been  frequently  seen  to  keep  them  at  a 
respectful  distance — especially  upon  one  occasion, 
when  a  whole  colony  of  hapless  squirrels  had  been 
hurried  down  the  falls  of  Niagara — till  he  had 
completely  satiated  himself  with  the  harvest  of 
death  ;  but,  when  pressed  by  hunger,  he  plays 
the  same  game  with  a  well-filled  vulture  as  he 
does,  ordinarily,  with  the  fish-hawk,  attacking  it 
furiously,  making  the  cowardly  glutton  disgorge 
the  carrion  with  which  its  craw  is  crammed,  and 
then  snatching  up  the  dainty  contents. 

The  nest  in  a  state  of  nature  is  generally  fixed 
on  some  large,  lofty  tree,  often  in  a  swamp  or 
morass  ;  and,  if  the  tree  be  a  favorite,  will  there 
be  continued  for  years  in  succession.  From  being 
thus  repaired  and  added  to  every  season,  it  be- 
comes a  dark,  prominent  mass,  catching  the  eye 
at  a  considerable  distance.  To  form  it,  sticks, 
sods,  earthy  rubbish,  hay,  moss,  &c.,  are  collected. 
The  eggs  are  two  in  number,  and  Wilson  men- 
tions a  story  about  the  female  laying  a  single 
egg  first,  and,  after  having  sat  on  it  for  some 
time,  laying  another.  When  the  first  is  hatched, 
the  warmth  of  that,  they  say,  hatches  the  second. 
Upon  the  correctness  of  this  tale,  Wilson  declines 
to  determine  ;  but  he  relates,  that  a  very  respect- 
able gentleman  in  Virginia  assured  him  that  he 
saw  a  large  tree  cut  down,  containing  the  nest  of 
a  bald  eagle,  wherein  were  two  young,  one  of 
which  appeared  nearly  three  times  as  large  as 
the  other.  One  of  these  nestlings  might  have 
had  the  lion's  share  of  the  food  brought  by  the 
parents  ;  but  the  story  of  the  hatching  at  long 
intervals  is  so  contrary  to  all  known  rules  of  incu- 
bation, that  it  must  be  received  with  the  greatest 
doubt. 

We  must  leave  the  grand  native  solitudes 
where  this  eagle  constructs  his  eyry,  for  the  cab- 
ined, cribbed,  confined  cell,  where  our  poor  pris- 
oners did  their  best  to  obey  nature's  law. 

The  female  began  to  sit  on  her  eggs  on  the  8th 
of  April,  and  the  pair  were  seen  by  hundreds 
steadily  persevering,  notwithstanding  the  gaze  of 
the  visitors,  from  day  to  day,  in  a  close  incubation 
till  the  6th  of  June,  when  the  worthless  eggs  were 
removed.  The  male  was  very  attentive  to  the 
female,  and  both  took  their  regular  turns  in  sitting. 
Their  entire  want  of  success  seems,  however,  t» 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


31 


have  disgusted  them  with  the  whole  proceeding, 
for  we  cannot  learn  that  the  female  has  produced 
an  egg  since. 

The  attachment  of  the  parents  to  the  young, 
though  it  does  not  seem  to  reach  the  self-devotion 
of  the  stork,  to  which  I  have  in  a  former  chapter 
alluded,  is  very  great.  A  person  near  Norfolk, 
U.  S.,  informed  Wilson,  that  in  clearing  a  piece 
of  woods  on  his  ground,  they  met  with  a  large 
dead  pine-tree,  on  which  was  a  nest  of  one  of 
these  birds  containing  young.  Fire  was  set  to 
the  tree,  the  crackling  flames  ascended,  the  tree 
was  in  a  blaze  more  than  half-way  up ;  the 
wretched  parent  darted  round  and  round  through 
the  fire  until  her  plumage  was  so  much  injured 
that  it  was  with  difficulty  she  made  her  escape, 
and,  even  in  that  condition,  she  several  times  at- 
tempted to  return,  all  the  mother  rising  in  her, 
and  driving  her  to  attempt  the  relief  of  her  doomed 
nestlings. 

In  a  dissection  by  Dr.  Samuel  Smith,  of  Phil- 
adelphia, the  eggs  were  found  to  be  small  and 
numerous  ;  and  this,  the  observer  remarks,  may 
account  for  the  unusual  excitement  manifested  by 
these  birds  in  pairing  time.  But,  he  adds,  why 
there  are  so  many  is  a  mystery. 

It  is,  perhaps,  consistent  with  natural  law  that 
everything  should  be  abundant ;  but  from  this  bird, 
it  is  said,  no  more  than  two  young  are  hatched  in  a 
season,  consequently  no  more  eggs  are  wanted  than 
a  sufficiency  to  produce  that  effect.  Are  the  eggs 
numbered  originally,  and  is  there  no  increase  of 
number,  but  a  gradual  loss  till  all  are  deposited  1 
If  so,  the  number  may  correspond  to  the  long  life 
and  vigorous  health  of  this  noble  bird.  Why  there 
are  but  two  young  in  a  season  is  easily  explained. 
Nature  has  been  studiously  parsimonious  of  her 
physical  strength,  from  whence  the  tribes  of  ani- 
mals incapable  to  resist  derive  security  and  confi- 
dence. 

That  which  the  indefatigable  Mr.  Gould  could 
not  obtain  in  the  native  country  of  the  bird,  he 
may  now  find  in  the  Garden  of  the  Zoological 
Society  of  London.  The  wedge-tailed  eagle,* 
the  Wol-dja  of  the  aborigines  of  the  mountain  and 
lowland  districts  of  Western  Australia,  the  eagle- 
hawk  of  the  colonists,  and  the  mountain  eagle  of 
New  South  Wales,  of  Collins,  laid  the  first  egg 
deposited  in  this  country  by  one  of  her  race  on 
the  27th  of  February  in  the  present  year.  On 
the  28th  it  was  placed  under  a  common  hen,  which 
sat  very  close,  but  fruitlessly,  and  on  the  21st  of 
March  the  addled  egg  was  removed.  On  the  4th 

*  Aquila  fucosa,  Cuv.  In  the  gallery  of  the  French 
Museum  it  appears  to  have  been  ticketed,  according  to 
Mr.  Bennett,  as  Aq'uila  fuscosa,  a  name  under  which  it 
is  mentioned  in  the  Supplement  to  the  Dictionnaire  des 
Sciences  Naturelles,  in  the  English  translation  of  Cuvier's 
work,  and  in  the  last  edition  published  hy  himself.  Mr. 
Bennett  supposes  that  this  "unmeaning  term  "  crept  in 
erroneously  for  fucosa,  as  Temminck  and  Vigors  both 
write  it,  and  as  ornithologists  now  generally  do.  Some 
better  appellation  than  either  might  have  been  found  for 
so  nohle  a  species.  But  names  must  not  he  altered,  or 
the  greatest  confusion — there  is  quite  enough  already — 
would  prevail. 


of  March  she  laid  a  second  egg,  which  was  also 
placed  under  a  hen  now  sitting. 

What  the  golden  eagle  is  to  the  northern  hem- 
isphere, the  wedge-tailed  eagle  is  to  the  southern. 
Universally  spread  over  the  southern  portion  of 
Australia,  numerous  in  Van  Diemen's  Land  and 
on  the  larger  islands  of  Bass'  Straits,  Mr.  Gould 
is  of  opinion  that  it  will,  in  all  probability,  be 
found  to  extend  its  range  as  far  towards  the  tropics 
in  the  south  as  the  golden  eagle  does  in  the  north. 
Of  great  power  and  ferocity,  it  is  the  scourge  of 
the  shepherds  and  stock-owners,  who  wage  deadly 
war  against  it,  and  unweariedly  seek  its  extirpa- 
tion. One,  killed  by  Mr.  Gould,  weighed  nine 
pounds,  and  measured  six  feet  eight  inches  in  alar 
extent;  but  his  impression  is,  that  far  Larger  indi- 
viduals have  come  under  his  notice.  Some  opin- 
ion of  its  strength  may  be  formed  from  the  act  of 
the  bird  figured  by  Collins,  which  was  captured 
by  Captain  Waterhouse,  during  an  excursion  to 
Broken  Bay,  and  struck  its  talons  through  a  man's 
foot,  while  lying  in  the  bottom  of  the  boat  with 
its  legs  tied  together.  During  the  ten  days  of  its 
captivity,  it  refused  food  from  all  but  one  person. 
The  natives,  who  looked  on  it  with  fear,  could  not 
be  prevailed  on  to  go  near  it,  and  they  asserted 
that  it  would  carry  off  a  middling-sized  kanguroo. 
But  the  brave  bird  could  not  brook  confinement ; 
and  one  morning  the  broken  rope,  by  which  it  was 
fastened,  was  all  that  remained.  The  captive  had 
divided  the  strands  and  soared  away. 

Its  natural  prey  consists  chiefly  of  the  smaller 
species  of  kanguroo.  These  its  piercing  eye  de- 
tects as  it  wheels  aloft,  circling  gracefully  till  a 
victim  is  marked,  when  down  it  conies  with  uner- 
ring and  fell  swoop.  Mr.  Gould  states  that  the 
bustard,*  whose  weight  is  twice  that  of  its  enemy, 
and  which  finds  a  more  secure  asylum  on  the  ex- 
tensive plains  of  the  interior,  is  not  safe  from  its 
attacks  ;  and  Mr.  Cunningham  mentions  even  the 
emew  as  its  prey.  But  the  kanguroos  seem  to 
have  been  its  staple,  and  probably  still  are  in  those 
parts  of  the  interior  where  civilized  man  has  not 
yet  penetrated.  Of  the  multitudes  of  those  quad- 
rupeds in  old  times  we  may  judge  by  the  account 
given  by  Captain  Flinders  of  Kanguroo  Island, 
where  they  were  living  in  amity  with  the  seals, 
as  appears  from  the  picturesque  engraving  from 
the  drawing  made  by  the  lamented  Mr.  Westall. 
The  captain  writes  that  it  was  too  late  to  go  on 
shore  in  the  evening  of  Sunday,  21st  March,  1802, 
but  every  glass  in  the  ship  was  pointed  there  to 
see  what  could  be  discovered.  Several  black 
lumps,  like  rocks,  were  asserted  to  have  been  seen 
in  motion  by  some  of  the  young  gentlemen,  of 
whom  the  gallant  Sir  John  Franklin,  for  whose 

*  This  was  probably  the  bird  shot  hy  Mr.  Ferdinand 
Bauer  on  Wellesley's  Islands,  which  weighed  between 
ten  and  twelve  pounds,  and  made  Captain  Flinders  and 
his  party  "  an  excellent  dinner,"  after  poor  Mr.  Bauer 
had  carried  it  on  his  back  many  a  weary  furlong.  The 
captain  remarks  that  the  flesh  of  this  bird  is  distributed 
in  a  manner  directly  contrary  to  that  of  the  domestic 
turkey  ;  the  white  meat  being  upon  the  legs,  ard  the 
black  upon  the  breast. 


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safety  all  good  men  pray,  was  one.  Next  morn- 
ing a  number  of  dark-brown  kanguroos  were  ob- 
served peaceably  feeding  upon  a  grass-plat  by  the 
side  of  a  wood,  and  the  landing  of  Captain  Flin- 
ders and  his  party  gave  the  unsuspecting  animals 
no  disturbance. 

I  (writes  the  captain)  had  with  me  a  double- 
barrelled  gun,  fitted  with  a  bayonet,  and  the  gentle- 
men, my  companions,  had  muskets.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  guess  how  many  kanguroos  were  seen  ; 
but  I  killed  ten,  and  the  rest  of  the  party  made  up 
the  number  to  thirty-one,  taken  on  board  in  the 
course  of  the  day — the  least  of  them  weighing 
sixty-nine,  and  the  largest  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  pounds.  These  kanguroos  had  much  resem- 
blance to  the  larger  species  found  in  the  forest  lands 
of  New  South  Wales ;  except  that  their  color  was 
darker,  and  they  were  not  wholly  destitute  of  fat. 

The  captain  records  this  slaughter  with  some 
compunction. 

After  this  butchery,  for  the  poor  animals  suffered 
themselves  to  be  shot  in  the  eyes  with  small  shot, 
and  in  some  cases  to  be  knocked  on  the  head  with 
sticks,  I  scrambled  with  difficulty  through  the 
brushwood,  and  over  fallen  trees,  to  reach  the 
higher  land  with  the  surveying  instruments  ;  but 
the  thickness  and  height  of  the  wood  prevented  any- 
thing else  from  being  distinguished.  There  was 
little  doubt,  however,  that  this  extensive  piece  of 
land  was  separated  from  the  continent ;  for  the 
extraordinary  lameness  of  the  kanguroos,  and  the 
presence  of  seals  upon  the  shore,  concurred  with 
the  absence  of  all  traces  of  men  to  show  that  it  was 
not  inhabited. 

But  the  sheep  now  walks  where  the  kanguroo 
formerly  bounded,  and  the  wedge-tailed  destroyer 
makes  terrible  havoc  with  the  lambs.  Not  that  it 


will  refuse  carrion  ;  fbr  Mr.  Gould,  during  one  of 
his  journeys  into  the  interior  to  the  northward  of 
Liverpool  Plains,  saw  no  less  than  thirty  or  forty 
assembled  together  round  the  carcass  of  a  dead 
bullock;  some,  gorged  to  the  full,  perched  upon 
the  neighboring  trees,  the  rest  still  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  feast.  And  he  adds,  that  for  the  sake 
of  the  refuse  thrown  away  by  the  kanguroo  hunt- 
ers it  will  often  follow  them  for  many  miles,  and 
even  for  days  together. 

The  nests  observed  by  the  same  scientific  trav- 
eller were  placed  in  the  most  inaccessible  trees, 
were  very  large,  nearly  flat,  and  built  of  sticks  and 
boughs.  The  eggs  he  never  could  procure. 

One  word  more,  friendly  reader,  and  you  shall 
be  left  to  more  instructive  and  attractive  matter. 
The.  latest  news  from  Egypt  reports  the  young 
hippopotamus  to  be  thriving  and  waxing  strong,  but 
more  good-natured  and  amiable  than  ever.  His 
teeth  are  advancing  ;  he  takes  his  rice  and  meal 
with  such  a  hearty  good  will  that  his  allowance 
of  milk — to  the  great  comfort,  no  doubt,  of  the 
good  people  of  Cairo,  who  must  have  had  some 
fears  of  a  famine  of  that  nutritious  beverage — is 
reduced  to  fifty  pints  a  day  ;  and  this  Brobdignag 
baby  has  contrived  to  win  good  Mr.  Murray's 
heart  so  effectually,  that  it  is  hoped  he  may  em- 
bark for  England,  with  his  huge  pet,  somewhere 
about  the  10th  of  May  next,  by  which  time  it  is 
expected  that  the  infant's  daily  stint  may  be  com- 
fortably lowered  to  twenty-five  pints.  And  so, 
farewell  for  the  present.  Before  these  notes 
meet  your  eye  the  groves  and  gardens  will  be 
vocal,  and  rejoicing  nature  will  be  glowing  under 
the  influence  of  spring — 

Cum  Zephyris  et  hirundine  prima. 


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URALIST. 


PARTHENOPE,  Ligeia,  Leucosia — these  are 
pretty  names  as  ever  were  bestowed  on  the  off- 
spring of  a  river  god  and  a  muse  ;  nor  are  Molpe, 
Aglaophonos,  and  Thelxiope* — which  some  will 
have  it  were  the  true  designations  of  the  daugh- 
ters of  Achelous  and  Melpomene — unmusical. 
Blest  with  powers  of  voice  and  fascination  equal 
to  Sontag — for,  however  the  habitues  of  her  maj- 
esty's theatre  may  reasonably  doubt  it,  they  too 
were  irresistible — the  sirens,  unlike  that  fair, 
spotless  enchantress,  poured  forth  their  gush  of 
song  to  the  ruin  of  their  entranced  audience, 
though  they  certainly  never  executed  Rode's  va- 
riations ;  it  may,  indeed,  be  doubted  whether  any 
sublunary  being,  with  the  exception  of  the  gifted 
countess,  ever  could — at  least  with  her  supreme 
excellence.  And  so  these  accursed  of  Ceres  con- 
tinued in  their  course  of  musical  murder,  sur- 
rounded by  the  corses  of  their  victims,  whose  re- 
mains were  wreathed  with  flowers,  radiant  with 
beauty,  as  our  own  Etty  has  depicted  them,  till 
their  career  was  closed  by  the  wily  Greek,  who 
had  received  his  lesson  from  another  mistress  of 
enchantment ;  and  so  they  perished. 

But,  it  seems,  their  crimes  were  not  sufficiently 
expiated.  Years  rolled  on  their  ceaseless  course. 
Greece  was  swallowed  up  by  Rome,  who  in  her 
turn  fell  at  the  feet  of  the  Goth  ;  and  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time  there  arose  a  wizard  from  the  great 
northern  hive,  he  of  the  polar  star,  who  waved 
his  wand,  aroused  the  sirens  from  the  annihilation 
into  which  they  had  escaped,  and  degraded  them 
into  one  of  the  lowest  reptile  forms  of  America. 

The  Arabs  have  a  saying  that  monkeys  are  en- 
chanted men,  and  the  most  elegant  of  modern 
poets  has  been  heard  to  declare  that  they  reminded 
him  of  poor  relations  ;  but  what  is  the  lot  of  hu- 
manity so  transformed,  compared  to  the  degrada- 
tion of  sirens  into  Perennibranchiate  Batrachians  1 

What  on  earth  are  Perennibranchiate  Batra- 
chians ? 

A  Batrachian,  in  the  language  of  the  learned, 
means  a  reptile  of  the  great  frog  family,  and  a 
Perennibranchiate — there  is  certainly  some  ses- 
quipedality  in  the  word,  as  there  too  often  is  in 
those  coined  by  the  scientific ;  with  all  due  sub- 
mission to  their  worships  be  it  written — a  Pe- 
rennibranchiate Batrachian  is  one  that  does  not 
go  through  metamorphosis,  like  a  common  frog 
for  instance,  (which  first  bursts  upon  the  aquatic 
world  as  a  tadpole,  then  acquires  limbs,  and  then 
drops  his  tail  and  gills,  as  becomes  a  citizen  of 

*  Or,  according  to  others,  Thelxione.  The  maternity 
is  given  by  some  genealogists  to  Calliope,  by  others  to 
Terpsichore  ;  but  the  better  opinion  is,  that  Melpomene 
was  the  mamma  of  these  deluders.  Like  other  irregular 
branches  of  families  they  became  troublesome  to  theirs  ; 
V116™  ng  fr[end'  Hera>  excited  them  to  contend  with 
the  Muses,  who  conquered  them,  and,  as  a  punishment 
for  their  presumption,  tore  off  their  wings. 


the  terrestrial  as  well  as  the  watery  world  thence- 
forth blessed  with  lungs,)  but  remains  a  gill- 
breathing,  muddy,  fishlike  groveller,  all  the  days 
of  its  life. 

In  my  zoological  obituary  for  last  March,  I  find 
the  death  of  Siren  lacertina  recorded  towards  the 
end  of  the  month.  The  melancholy  event  took 
place  in  the  garden  of  the  Society  in  the  Regent's 
Park,  where  the  siren  had  lived  for  many  years 
in  the  parrot-house,  domiciled  in  a  vessel  of  pond 
water,  with  a  bottom  of  deep  mud.  It  was 
during  its  life  as  vivacious  as  anything  existing 
in  inky-looking  mud  could  be,  and  throve  well  on 
worms  —  with  some  dozen  and  a  half  of  which  it 
was  daily  supplied—  and  small  fish.  It  was  very 
eel-like  in  its  motions,  though  blessed  with  two 
small  anterior  extremities  ;  but  as  you  may  wish 
to  know  something  about  the  animal,  curious 
reader,  here  is  a  description  of  it,  which  those 
who  are  not  inquisitive  may  skip  if  they  please. 

The  generic  character  of  the  sirens  consists  in 
an  elongated  form,  nearly  similar  to  that  of  the 
eels.  There  are  three  external  branchial  or  gill 
tufts  on  each  side.  No  posterior  feet,  but  two 
anterior  small  ones.  Not  a  vestige  of  a  pelvis. 
The  head  depressed  ;  the  gape  of  the  mouth  mod- 
erate ;  the  muzzle  obtuse  ;  the  eye  very  little  ; 
the  ear  concealed  ;  the  lower  jaw  sheathed  with 
a  horny  substance,  and  aimed  with  several  rows 
of  small  teeth  ;  the  upper  jaw  toothless  ;  on  the 
palate  numerous  small  retroverted  denticles. 

Such  is  the  reptile  of  which  Dr.  Garden,  in 
the  years  1765,  1766,  sent  a  description  to  Ellis 
and  Linnaeus,  when  the  immortal  Swede  estab- 
lished an  additional  order  for  the  siren  in  his  class 
Amphibia  —  the  order  Meantes.  Such  is  an  out- 
line of  the  creature  which  Cuvier  pronounced  to 
be  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  class  of  rep- 
tiles, nay,  of  the  whole  animal  kingdom  ;  a  bold 
declaration,  but  borne  out  by  the  anomalies  of  its 
structure,  its  relationship  to  different  families,  and 
its  approximation  even  to  different  classes. 

Thus,  Pallas,  Hermann,  Schneider,  and  Lace- 
pede,  classed  it  as  the  larva  of  a  great  unknown 
salamander.  Camper  placed  it  among  the  fishes. 
He  was  followed  by  Gmelin,  who  made  an  eel  of 
it,  conferring  on  it  the  name  of  Mur&na  siren; 
and  't  is  almost  a  pity  that  the  last-named  worthy 
doctor  was  dead  wrong  in  making  it  a  Murecna  ; 
it  would  have  been  so  everlasting  classical  for 
that  enlightened  republican,  brother  Jonathan,  who 
loves  to  copy  the  Romans,  to  have  thrown  his 
slaves  to  the  Murcena.  But  he  may  still  be  imi- 
tative, and  throw  them  to  the  sirens.  Only,  in- 
stead of  going  to  the  rocks  and  deep  blue  sea 
where  the  sirens  of  old  haunted  —  as  you,  young 
gentleman,  have  read  in  your  Virgil*  —  he  must 
condemn  them  to  be  laid  in  the  marshes  where 
the  luxuriant  crops  of  rice  wave.  There,  and  in 
swamps,  under  the  entangled  roots  of  time-worn 
trees,  the  American  siren  lurks,  and  thence  ob- 


v.  684.  These  rocks  are  understood  to  have 
been  the  island  of  Caprese,  the  retreat  of  the  tiger-like 
Tiberius,  who,  it  is  said,  could  see  like  a  cat  in  the  dark. 


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tained  the  somewhat  unclassical  name  of  "  The 
Mud  Iguana."  And  if  you  wish  to  be  acquainted 
with  the  proportions  of  the  Transatlantic  form, 
know  that  Siren  lacertina,  one  of  the  sisters, 
(whose  death  we  have  above  recorded,)  grows  to 
the  length  of  three  feet,  a  dark  anguillary  beauty, 
of  some  intensity  of  color,  with  two  little  hands, 
(or  fore  feet,  if  you  must  be  critical,)  of  four  rin- 
gers each,  and  instead  of  lower  extremities,  a 
compressed  tail,  with  an  obtuse  fin.  When  I  last 
saw  the  defunct,  the  creature  was  as  large  as  a 
child's  wrist,  and  flounced  about  most  vigorously 
upon  being  lifted  out  of  its  inky  bed.  Death 
came  upon  it  at  the  end  of  March.  Two  days 
before  the  fatal  event  it  had  devoured  two  small 
fishes.  The  weather  was  unseasonably  cold,  and 
frost  and  snow  prevailed. 

But  the  siren  has,  of  course,  some  vocal  power? 

As  if  to  make  the  mockery  complete,  this  siren 
was  said  to  have  the  voice  of  a  duck  ;  but  even 
this  has  been  denied.  The  captive  siren  of  the 
Regent's  Park  was  never  heard  to  utter  any 
sound. 

This  is  no  place  for  anatomical  or  physiological 
detail,  or  much  might  be  said  relative  to  this  most 
curious  form.  Those  who  feel  interested,  will  be 
rewarded  for  referring  to  John  Hunter,  Cuvier, 
and  Owen.  The  last-named  distinguished  com- 
parative anatomist  has  recorded  some  most  val- 
uable observations  on  the  blood-discs  of  this  ba- 
trachian,  and  their  comparison  with  those  of  man.* 
The  siren's  blood-discs  were  obtained  by  the  pro- 
fessor from  one  of  the  external  gills  of  the  de- 
ceased specimen  when  it  was  in  good  health,  in 
the  month  of  October,  1841. 

But,  without  loading  these  pages  with  scientific 
disquisition,  it  is  impossible  that  any  one  should 
even  glance  at  the  history  and  conformation  of  the 
sirens  without  being  struck  with  the  anomalies 
which  they  present.  Pallas  and  the  other  dis- 
tinguished zoologists  above-mentioned,  may  well 
be  pardoned  for  considering  the  form  that  of  one 
of  the  SalamandridcR  in  its  progress  to  perfection. 
The  first  sight  of  it  suggests  the  presence  of  a 
salamander  in  a  metamorphic  stage,  and  it  is  only 
upon  close  examination  that  the  observer  is  satis- 
fied that  the  animal  has  reached  its  completion. 
It  is  as  if  Nature  had  been  determined  to  show, 
that  if  she  wished  to  indulge  in  the  freak,  she 
could  arrest  the  animal's  development,  and,  under 
the  guise  of  a  salamandrian  larva,  present  a  crea- 
ture perfect  according  to  its  kind,  and  forming  a 
finished  link  in  the  great  chain  of  beings,  as  per- 
fect, after  its  kind,  as  Sieboldtia  maxima,  in  which 
enormous  newt,  the  slits  of  the  gill-aperture — 
which  'always  remains  open  in  Menopoma,  an 
American  salamandrian — are  closed. 

Dr.  Von  Siebold  found  this  creature — which 
comes  nearest  of  living  beings  to  Scheuchzer's 
Homo  diluvii  testis,  now  termed  Andrias  Scheuch- 
zeri,  and  which  has  been  proved  to  be  a  great  fos- 

*  See  Penny  Cyclopaedia,  article  "  Siren  (Zoology)," 
vol.  xxii.,  p.  66  ;  where  these  observations  and  a  history 
of  the  animal  will  be  found. 


sil  salamandrian — in  a  lake  on  a  mountain  of 
basalt,  in  Japan  ;  just  such  a  locality  as  we  find 
assigned  in  the  Arabian  Nights  to  enchanted 
aquatics.  The  doctor  brought  with  him  a  male 
and  a  female  ;  but  the  former  was  so  fond  of  his 
wife  that  he  ate  her  up  on  the  passage  home,  and 
arrived,  consequently,  in  the  best  health  and  spirits 
at  Leyden,  measuring  about  three  feet  in  length. 

About  the  time  of  the  siren's  death  there  were 
hopes  that  a  young  dromedary  would  make  its 
appearance  ;  and,  indeed,  one  had  been  born  in 
the  Regent's  Park  previously.  But  in  this  last 
case  the  young  creature  was  stillborn,  though  its 
mother  had  bred  it  well.  The  period  of  gestation 
is  stated  to  be  between  eleven  and  twelve  months. 

Viewed  with  the  eye  of  even  a  comparatively 
careless  observer,  the  camel  presents  one  of  the 
most  complete  instances  of  design  with  relation  tc 
human  wants.  There  is  not  a  part  of  its  struc- 
ture, from  the  bony  framework  of  the  skeleton  to 
the  external  hair  of  its  coat,  that  could  be  omitted 
without  injury  to  the  wonderful  work,  or  improved. 
Those  very  parts  which  seem  deformities,  are  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  its  well-being  and  destina- 
tion, and  the  hump  and  callosities  become  beauties 
when  examined  with  reference  to  the  exigencies 
of  the  animal,  and  its  condition  as  the  slave  of 
man. 

And  here  arises  the  question  whether  this  hump 
and  these  callosities  are  natural  formations,  or  due 
to  the  pressure  of  the  loads  with  which  the  animal 
has  for  ages  been  burdened,  and  to  the  weight  of 
its  body.  The  callosities  are  seven  in  number, 
and  upon  these  the  pressure  of  the  body  is  thrown 
when  the  creature  kneels  down  and  rises  up. 
They  have  been  observed  upon  a  newly-born 
camel ;  but  no  child  is  born  with  corns  on  the  toes 
and  feet,  whatever  fashion  and  tight  shoes  may 
have  done  for  its  parent — at  least  I  never  heard 
of  a  baby  who  came  into  the  world  with  those 
excruciating  afflictions.  Not  that  it  may  not  be 
admitted,  that  in  a  long  course  of  years  these 
marks  of  servitude,  as  they  have  been  termed, 
may  have  been  more  largely  developed.  Dr. 
Walter  Adam,  in  his  paper  on  the  osteology  of 
the  Bactrian  camel,  remarks,  that  the  dorsal  ver- 
tebrae of  the  animal  on  which  he  made  his  obser- 
vations had  been  modified  by  the  pressure  of  its 
loads.  We  know  that  by  careful  breeding,  the 
horns  of  the  ox  and  the  sheep  may  be  made  to 
assume  almost  every  grade  of  excess  and  defect, 
till  they  vanish  altogether,  and  a  hornless  race  is 
obtained.  Those  who  delight  in  oddities,  know 
how  to  secure  a  breed  of  rumpless  fowls  and  tail- 
less cats.  The  dapper,  clean-legged  bantams, 
for  which  Sir  John  Sebright  was  famous,  were 
remarkable  for  the  absence  of  the  sickle-shaped, 
drooping  feathers,  from  the  tails  of  the  cocks, 
whence  they  were  called  by  some  bird-fanciers 
"  Hen-cocks."  This  absence  had  been  the  result 
of  the  greatest  care  and  attention  to  the  breed. 
In  all  these  cases,  the  change  or  modification  is 
limited  to  externals.  The  internal  organization 
of  the  animals  remains  absolutely  the  same 


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35 


Now,  whether  we  look  at  the  grotesque  figure 
sf  the  camel,  or  investigate  its  internal  structure, 
we  find  the  most  unmistakable  evidence  of  adap- 
tation to  that  state  of  life  to  which  it  has  pleased 
the  great  Author  of  its  being  to  call  it.  Born 
for  the  desert,  the  callosities  prevent  the  skin  from 
cracking  at  those  points  where  the  weight  of  the 
animal  rests  upon  the  arid,  burning  sands.  The 
strong,  nipper-like  upper  incisor  teeth  are  fit  in- 
struments for  cutting  through  the  tough  plants  and 
shrubs  that  spring  here  and  there  on  those  bound- 
less wastes.  The  nostrils  are  so  organized  that 
the  animal  can  effectually  close  them,  and  defy 
the  stormy,  destructive  sand-drifts  that  sweep 
harmlessly  by  him.  "  The  desert  ship"  seems 
to  float  rather  than  step  on  the  elastic,  pad-like 
cushions  of  its  spreading  feet,  moving  as  noise- 
lessly as  Mr.  Mark's  vulcanized  Indian-rubber 
wheel-tires  convey  a  carriage  over  a  granite  pave- 
ment. 

What  always  struck  me  as  something  extremely 
romantic  and  mysterious  (writes  Mr.  Macfarlane) 
was  the  noiseless  step  of  the  camel,  from  the 
spongy  nature  of  his  feet.  Whatever  be  the  nature 
of  the  ground — sand,  or  rock,  or  turf,  or  paved 
stones — you  hear  no  foot-fall ;  you  see  an  immense 
animal  approaching  you  stilly  as  a  cloud  floating 
on  air,  and  unless  he  wear  a  bell  your  sense  of 
hearing,  acute  as  it  may  be,  will  give  you  no  inti- 
mation of  his  presence. 

Riley,  too,  notices  the  silent  passage  of  a  train 
of  camels  up  a  rocky  steep,  and  accounts  for  the 
silence  because  their  feet  are  as  soft  as  sponge  or 
leather.  The  structure  of  his  stomach  enables 
the  camel  to  digest  the  coarsest  vegetable  tissues, 
and  he  even  prefers  such  plants  as  a  horse  would 
not  touch,  to  the  finest  pasture.  He  is  satisfied 
with  very  little,  and  if  he  should  be  stinted  even 
of  this  hard  fare,  the  fat  hump  contains  a  store  of 
nourishment  to  be  taken  up  into  the  system,  and 
sustain  it  till  he  reaches  some  oasis  of  tough 
prickly  bushes,  which  he  discusses  with  the  great- 
est relish  ;  and,  if  the  best  of  liquids  be  there, 
fills  the  water-tanks  with  which  his  interior  is 
fitted  up,  and  goes  on  his  way  rejoicing. 

One  word  more — without  trespassing  upon  the 
province  of  the  anatomist  or  the  patience  of  the 
general  reader — as  to  the  modification  which  even 
the  hardest  parts  of  the  animal  frame  will  undergo 
to  answer  the  exigencies  of  the  demand.  Dr. 
Adam  found  that  the  burdens  of  the  baggage- 
camel  from  Bengal,  which  he  examined,  and 
which — poor,  indefatigable  workman — had  done 
its  duty  more  scrupulously  than  many  of  the  biped 
laborers  in  the  vineyard  of  this  world,  had  much 
altered  the  form  of  the  dorsal  vertebras.  He  ob- 
served that  the  natural  breadth  of  the  bodies  of 
those  vertebrae  seemed  to  be  not  greater  than  the 
wideness  of  the  nostrils ;  but,  owing  to  the  great 
weights  borne  by  the  patient  animal  whose  re- 
mains came  under  the  doctor's  observation,  the 
enlargement  was  such  that  those  bones  presented 
an  instance  of  exostosis  rather  than  of  normal 
proportion — though  still  that  enlargement  had 


seen  controlled  by  the  laws  of  symmetry.  The 
greatest  breadth  was  attained  at  the  connection  of 
the  fifth  and  the  sixth  dorsal  vertebra?  ;  there  the 
pressure  of  the  burdens  had  evidently  been  most 
severe  ;  and  the  summit  of  the  hump  was  at  the 
sixth.  Thus  was  the  back  strengthened  for  the 
burden. 

Dr.  Adam  suggests  that  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  symmetry  of  the  swift  dromedaries  will 
be  found  to  be  much  more  complete  than  that  of 
the  baggage-camel.  The  load  for  the  latter  is 
variously  stated  ;  some  make  it  six,  some  seven, 
and  others  above  eight  hundred  pounds  ;  nay, 
Sandys  says  that  he  will  carry  a  thousand.  The 
swiftness  of  the  dromedary,*  el  heirie,  or,  as  most 
travellers  call  it,  maherry,  may  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  high-mettled  racer,  with  more  endur- 
ance. "  When  thou  shalt  meet  a  heirie,  and  say 
to  the  rider  Salem  Aleik,  ere  he  shall  have  an- 
swered thee  Aleik  Salem,  he  will  be  afar  off,  and 
nearly  out  of  sight,  for  his  fleetness  is  like  the 
wind."  A  sabayee,  said  to  be  the  swiftest  of  this 
breed,  is  good  for  six  hundred  thirty  miles  (thirty- 
five  days  of  caravan-travelling)  in  five  days. 
Seven  or  eight  miles  an  hour,  for  nine  or  ten 
hours  a  day,  is  stated  to  be  a  common  perform- 
ance ;  and  the  lamented  Captain  Lyon,  whose 
accuracy  was  strict,  relates  that  a  Northern  Afri- 
can Arabian  maherry's  long  trot,  at  the  rate  of 
nine  miles  an  hour,  will  endure  for  many  hours 
together. 

Cupid  has  been  pictured  bestriding  the  lion  and 
the  dolphin,  and  Darwin  has  made  him  inspire 
plants  with  love ;  but  when  he  takes  the  shape 
of  an  Arabian  lover,  and  mounts  his  dromedary, 
nothing  seems  impossible — space  and  time  are 
annihilated.  It  is  on  record  that  a  young  man 
was  passionately  fond  of  a  young  girl — lovely,  of 
course — and  who  on  her  part  had  a  devouring 
passion  for  oranges.  None  were  to  be  had  for 
love  or  money  at  Mogadore,  and  no  fruit  worthy 
of  the  damsel  could  be  procured  nearer  than  Ma- 
rocco.  The  lover  mounted  his  heirie  at  dawning, 
sped  him  away  to  Marocco,  a  hundred  miles  from 
Mogadore,  bagged  the  desired  oranges,  and  re- 
turned home  that  very  night ;  but  too  late  to  pass, 
for  the  gates  were  shut.  The  beauty,  however, 
was  not  disappointed,  for  the  gallant  Arab  made  a 
friend  of  one  of  the  guards  of  the  batteries,  who 
conveyed  the  golden  fruit  to  the  charming  expect- 
ant. And  here  the  story  ends,  and  it  is  well  that 
it  does  so.  The  natural  hope  of  plodding  Euro- 
peans is,  that  they  were  married,  and  lived  long 
and  happily  :  but  then  comes  the  painful  truth. 
Beauty,  which  in  our  northern  climes  endures 
long  in  rich  ripeness,  is  in  Arabia  as  fleeting  as 
one  of  its  own  flowers.  Nothing,  we  are  told, 
can  exceed  the  prettiness  of  an  Arab  girl,  but  the 
hideous — yes  that  is  the  gallant  traveller's  word 
— the  hideous  ugliness  of  the  old  women. 

"  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go," 

*  KctttrjUo?  doouas—  Camelos  dramas,  running  or  swift 
camel. 


36 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


and,  acting  upon  this  principle,  the  camel-drivers 
in  some  parts  of  Africa — Senegal  for  instance — 
were  wont,  soon  after  the  birth  of  a  young  camel, 
to  tie  its  feet  under  its  belly,  throw  a  large  cloth 
over  its  back,  and  place  heavy  stones  upon  each 
of  the  corners  of  the  cloth  that  rested  on  the 
ground.  Thus  did  the  Moors  accustom  the  ani- 
mal to  receive  the  loads  which  it  was  destined  to 
carry  through  a  life  of  labor,  generally  prolonged 
to  twenty  years.  Females,  indeed,  and  such  for- 
tunate males  as  are  exempt  from  work,  are  said  to 
live  for  twenty-five  or  even  thirty  years. 

The  European  mode  of  training  is  not  com- 
menced till  the  camel  has  attained  the  age  of  four 
years,  when  the  trainers  first  double  up  one  of  his 
fore  legs,  which  they  bind  fast  with  a  cord  ;  this 
they  pull,  and  thus  compel  the  trainee  to  come 
down  upon  his  bent  knee.  But  all  pupils  are 
not  equally  docile  ;  and  if  this  method  should 
fail,  as  it  sometimes  does,  both  legs  are  tied  up, 
and  the  camel  falls  upon  both  knees,  and  on  the 
callosity  which  protects  the  breast.  This  opera- 
tion is  often  accompanied  by  a  cry  and  a  slight 
application  of  the  whip  from  the  trainer  ;  and,  by 
degrees,  the  animal  learns  at  last  to  lie  down 
upon  his  belly,  with  its  legs  doubled  under  it,  at 
the  well-remembered  cry  and  blow,  accompanied 
by  a  jerk  of  its  halter.  Having  attained  so 
much  obedience,  the  trainer  proceeds  to  place  a 
pack-saddle  on  the  creature's  back.  When  it  is 
accustomed  to  this  appendage  a  light  load  is  put 
on,  and  gradually  increased  till  it  reaches  the 
maximum,  which  is  generally  understood  to  be 
fourteen  killogrammes,  or  above  eight  hundred 
pounds,  for  a  full-grown  camel. 

Such  is  the  mode  practised  at  Pisa  ;  and  though 
the  Moors  brought  the  animal  into  Spain,  that 
appears  to  be  the  only  locality  in  Europe  where 
the  camel  is  now  bred.  The  arid  plains  and 
stunted  vegetation  at  San  Rossora  seem  to  have 
pointed  it  out  as  the  proper  place  for  this  experi- 
ment ;  but  though  success  attends  it,  the  breed 
seems  to  dwindle.  The  foal  is  obliged  to  be  held 
up  by  attendants  to  take  the  maternal  nourish- 
ment, which  in  a  state  of  nature  the  new-born 
creature  must  be  in  a  condition  to  obtain  without 
assistance,  or  continuation  of  the  species  must 
cease.  And  here  it  may  be  observed,  that  we 
have  no  authentic  account  of  the  camel  in  a  genu- 
ine wild  state.  The  earliest  records,  from  the 
sacred  Scripture  downwards,  present  it  in  a  do- 
mesticated state.  When  Joseph  was  cast  by  his 
brethren  into  the  pit,  and  the  criminal  fraternity 
sat  down  to  eat  bread,  they  lifted  up  their  eyes 
and  looked,  and  behold  a  company  of  Ishmaelites 
came  from  Gilead  with  their  camels,  bearing 
spicery,  and  balm,  and  myrrh,  going  to  carry  it 
down  'to  Egypt.  And  yet  in  Egypt  itself  no  trace 
appears  to  have  been  observed  on  the  multitudinous 
ancient  monuments  of  the  form.  It  is,  indeed,  to 
be  seen  on  the  frieze  of  the  building  at  Ghirza, 
where  it  is  introduced  four  several  times  ;  and  in 
one  instance  a  female  dromedary  is  suckling  her 
young  one.  When  Gideon  arose  and  slew  Zebah 


and  Zalmunna,  he  took  away  the  ornaments  that 
were  on  their  camels'  necks.  Jacob  divided  the 
people  that  was  with  him,  and  the  flocks  and  the 
herds,  and  the  camels,  into  two  bands  ;  and  thirty 
milch  camels  and  their  colts  formed  part  of  the 
present  which  he  sent  to  propitiate  his  ill-used 
brother  Esau.  The  camel  appears  in  the  forbid- 
den list  set  forth  in  Leviticus,  because  he  cheweth 
the  cud  but  divideth  not  the  hoof.  The  Chal- 
deans made  out  three  bands  and  fell  upon  Job's 
camels,  of  which  he  had  three  thousand,  and  car- 
ried them  away  ;  and  when  the  Lord  blessed  the 
latter  end  of  Job  more  than  his  beginning,  the 
comforted  patriarch  possessed  six  thousand. 
When  Xerxes  invaded  Greece  camels  figured  as 
part  of  his  enormous  host.  The  Arabians  were 
stationed  in  the  rear,  that  the  horses  might  not  be 
frightened,  because  they  cannot  endure  camels — 
of  which  more  anon  ;  and  when  the  Great  King 
was  inarching  through  the  Paeonian  and  Crestoni- 
an  territories  towards  the  river  Echidorus,  lions 
came  down  in  the  night  and  attacked  the  camels, 
seizing  them  only,  and  leaving  man  and  every 
other  beast  unharmed.  Herodotus  expresses  his 
wonder  that  the  lions  should  abstain  from  all  the 
rest  and  set  upon  the  camels — beasts  which  they 
had  never  before  seen  or  tried,*  as  was  probably 
the  case  with  those  lions.  Before  the  camel  was 
known  in  Africa,  beyond  the  Nile,  the  country 
abounded  with  lions,  and  was  a  kind  of  preserve 
whence  the  proconsuls  drew  their  supplies  for 
the  Roman  amphitheatre  ;  but  about  the  middle  of 
the  third  century,  when  the  Arabs  entered  Africa, 
the  numbers  of  these  ravenous  beasts  of  prey 
were  greatly  diminished  ;  so  much  so,  indeed, 
that  hunting  them  was  forbidden,  except  in  the 
case  of  privileged  persons — a  prohibition  which 
originated  in  the  apprehension  that  there  would 
be  few  or  none  left  for  the  circus.  Honorius  put 
an  end  to  this  prohibition,  and  then  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  lions  followed  ;  cultivation  increased  ; 
camels  were  introduced,  facilitating  communica- 
tion from  one  point  to  another  without  risk  of 
leonine  attack ;  and  civilization  advanced. 

It  has  been  already  observed  that  no  authentic 
record  appears  of  the  existence  of  camels  in  a 
wild  state. f  And  though  M.  Desmoulins  is  of 
opinion  that  they  were  to  be  found  in  that  state 
in  Arabia  at  tne  beginning  of  the  second  century, 
and  though  the  natives  of  Central  Africa  declare 
that  wild  camels  wander  free  in  the  mountains 
where  European  feet  have  never  trod,  such  asser- 
tions are  by  no  means  conclusive :  for  granting 
them  to  be  true,  such  camels  may  have  been  de- 
scended from  domesticated  parents,  which  had, 
like  the  American  horses,  escaped  from  their 
owners.  In  one  expedition,  directed  by  the  great 
Assyrian  queen,  whom  Ninus  coveted  from  the 
despairing  Menones,  and  obtained  to  his  own  des- 

*  Polymnia,  125. 

t  With  reference  to  this  question  it  may  be  worthy  of 
note,  that  the  fossil  remains  of  a  camel  are  said  to  have 
been  detected  by  Col.  Cautley  in  the  sub-Himalayan 
range. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF   A    NATURALIST. 


37 


truction,  three  hundred  myriads  of  fooi,  a  nun- 
dred  myriads  of  horse,  ten  myriads  of  scythe- 
armed  chariots,  as  many  of  fighting  men  mounted 
on  camels,  and  seventy  myriads  more  of  those 
beasts  destined  for  various  services,  were  among 
the  hosts  collected  at  her  command.  Camels  also 
carried  the  artificial  elephants,  which,  to  the 
number  of  two  millions,  Semiramis  employed  in 
her  Mesopotamian  expedition  against  the  Indians, 
in  which  she  was  wounded.  But  if  the  mother 
of  Vathek  had  her  Alboufaki,  the  most  hideous, 
malignant,  and  swift  of  dromedaries,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Derceto  was  mistress  of  one  which,  though 
it  may  not  have  rivalled  that  of  Carathis  in  ugli- 
ness and  unearthly  propensities,  saved  her  by  its 
fleetness.  Poor  Zenobia  was  not  so  fortunate, 
for  the  swiftness  of  her  dromedaries  could  not 
prevent  her  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  Aure- 
lian. 

In  ancient  war,  besides  their  use  as  beasts  of 
burthen,  the  swifter  races,  the  maherries  of  that 
day,  drew  the  rapid  scythed  chariots,  mowing 
down  masses  of  men  in  their  course  ;  or  carried 
howmen,  armed  also  with  long  swords,  to  enable 
them  to  reach  the  cavalry  and  infantry  in  personal 
encounters. 

As  for  camels,  they  are  nourished  in  the  Levant  or 
East  parts  (quoth  Philemon  Holland,  in  his  transla- 
tion of  Pliny)  among  other  heards  of  great  cattell  : 
two  kindes  there  be  of  them,  the  Bactrians  and  the 
Arabick  :  differing  herein,  that  the  Bactrians  have 
two  bunches  upon  their  backs  ;  the  other  but  one 
apiece  there,  but  they  have  another  in  their  brest, 
whereupon  they  rest  and  ly.  Both  sorts  want  the 
upper  row  of  teeth  in  their  mouthes,  like  as  bulls 
and  kine.  In  those  parts  from  whence  they  come 
they  serve  all  to  carry  packs,  like  laboring  horses, 
and  are  put  to  service  also  in  the  wars,  and  are 
backed  of  horsemen  :  their  swiftness  is  compara- 
ble to  that  of  horses  ;  they  grow  to  a  just  measure, 
and  exceed  not  a  certain  ordinary  strength.  The 
camell,  in  his  travelling,  will  not  goe  a  iot  farther 
than  his  ordinary  journey ;  nether  will  he  carry 
more  than  his  accustomed  and  usuall  load.  Natu- 
rally they  doe  hate  horses.  They  can  abide  to  be 
four  daies  together  without  drinke  ;  and  when  they 
drinke  or  meet  with  water  they  fill  their  skin  full 
enough  to  serve  both  for  time  past  and  to  come ; 
but  before  they  drinke,  they  must  trample  with  their 
feet  to  raise  mud  and  sand,  and  so  trouble  the 
water,  otherwise  they  take  no  pleasure  in  drinking. 
They  live  comraonly  fifty  yeares,  and  some  of 
them  a  hundred.  These  creatures  also  otherwhile 
fall  to  be  mad,  so  much  as  it  is.  Moreover,  they 
have  a  device  to  splay  even  the  very  females,  to 
make  them  fit  for  the  warres  ;  for  if  they  be  not 
covered,  they  become  the  stronger  and  more  cour 
ageous. 

There  is  one  manifest  error  in  this  account, 
showing  that  Pliny  never  could  have  looked  into  a 
camel's  mouth,  which  has  two  pointed  incisive  teeth 
implanted  in  the  upper  jaw,  forming  with  the  six 
lower  incisors  a  formidable  pair  of  nippers,  admi- 
rably adapted  for  cutting  through  the  tough  plants 
which  form  the  principal  fopd  of  the  animal.  The 
age,  too,  is  nearly  double  that  assigned  to  the 


camel  by  the  moderns.  The  antipathy  of  the 
horse,  which  is  frequently  alluded  to  by  the  an- 
cients, still  exists  in  full  force,  and  appears  to  be 
mutual,  where  use  has  not  reconciled  it  to  the 
camel, — 

Unjue  aquilam  cygnus,  congrum  muraena  camelus 
Odit  equum. 

Cyrus  availed  himself  of  this  antipathy  on  the 
suggestion  of  Harpagus  the  Mede  to  the  utter  dis- 
comfiture of  Cnesus.  He  gathered  together  the 
multitude  of  camels  that  followed  his  army  with 
provisions  and  baggage,  caused  their  burthens  to 
be  taken  off,  and  armed  men  to  mount  them,  and 
then  ordered  them  to  go  in  advance  of  the  army 
against  the  Lydian  horse.  His  infantry  he  placed 
immediately  behind  the  camels,  and  his  cavalry  ir 
the  rear  of  the  infantry.  Then  he  gave  the  cruel 
word  for  no  quarter,  except  to  Crcesus,  who  was 
on  no  account  to  be  killed,  whatever  resistance  he 
might  make.  He  thus  disposed  his  troops,  adds 
Herodotus,*  for  this  reason — a  horse  is  afraid  of 
a  camel,  and  cannot  endure  its  sight  or  smell  ;  and 
he  had  recourse  to  this  stratagem  that  the  cavalry, 
by  which  the  Lydian  expected  to  win,  might  be 
useless  to  Croasus.  And  so  it  fell  out ;  for  when 
they  joined  battle,  the  horses  no  sooner  smelt  and 
saw  the  camels  than  they  turned  tail  and  destroyed 
the  hopes  of  Cro2sus. 

Even,  now,  at  Pisa,  it  is  found  necessary  to 
reconcile  the  horses  to  the  sight  of  the  camels  in 
order  to  prevent  accidents  ;  and  where  the  pre- 
cautions of  such  training  have  not  been  adopted, 
the  sudden  and  dangerous  terror  with  which  a  horse 
is  seized  on  coming  unexpectedly  upon  one  of 
them  is  excessive. 

The  madness  alluded  to  by  Pliny  probably  re- 
fers to  the  violence  of  the  male  at  certain  seasons,, 
when  a  portion  of  the  velum  palati  is  protruded 
with  a  strange  and  loud  noise.  Cupid  makes 
many  of  his  votaries  play  as  strange  love-pranks 
as  ever  the  crazy  Don  performed  ;  but  when  he 
bestrides  a  camel,  he  makes  the  impassioned  brute 
absolutely  rabid. 

Advantage  is  taken  of  this  state  of  excitement 
by  the  turbaned  Turk  ;  and  two  rivals  are  pitted, 
who  at  once  rush  at  each  other,  and  a  regular 
combat  follows.  Before  they  are  let  go  they  are 
muzzled  after  a  fashion,  so  that  no  deadly  injury 
can  ensue.  Then  they  turn  to  like  Cornish  wrest- 
lers, standing  on  their  own  hind  legs,  embracing' 
each  other  with  their  anterior  extremities,  twist- 
ing their  necks  together  and  each  striving  to  over- 
throw his  adversary.  Fired  at  the  sight,  the 
Turk  loses  his  staid  and  apathetic  demeanor.  He 
claps  his  hands,  and  shouts  out  the  name  of  the 
favorite  which  he  has  backed  with  an  energy  wor- 
thy of  Hockley  Hole  and  Marylebone  in  the  old 
time,  before  modern  statutes  had  prohibited  the 
brutalizing  dog-fights,  bull  and  badger  baits,  which, 
in  other  days,  formed  the  amusement  of  the  high 
and  low  vulgar.  A  vestige  of  the  old  English 
spirit  still  lingers,  and  snatches  of  ancient  songs 


79. 


38 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


commemorative  of  the  departed  rugging  and 
riving  era  may  yet  be  heard  in  triviis* 

Mr.  Macfarlane  saw  one  of  these  got-up  camel- 
fights  at  a  Turkish  wedding  in  a  village  near 
Smyrna,  and  again  at  a  festival  at  Magnesia.  But 
he  once,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Smyrna,  saw  a 
fight  of  a  more  serious  character.  Two  huge 
camels  broke  away  from  the  string,  and  set  to  in 
spite  of  their  drivers.  They  bit  each  other  like 
furies,  and  the  devidjis,f  to  whom  in  general  these 
animals  are  most  obedient  and  even  affectionate, 
had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  separating  the  enraged 
rivals. 

On  the  Roman  arena  the  camel  was  seen  com- 
paratively late,  either  as  a  mere  spectacle  or  in  a 
ruck  with  other  beasts,  and  there  is  some  founda- 
tion for  the  belief  that  camels  appeared  in  the 
circus  drawing  chariots  four-in-hand  ;  not  as  we 
•drive,  but  all  four  in  the  same  line,  yoked  togeth- 
.er  abreast. 

Ptolemy  evinced  his  respect  for  the  human  race 
!by  showing  together  two  novelties  in  the  Egyptian 
theatre,  namely,  a  black  camel  and  a  parti-colored 
man,  the  latter  being  half  white  and  half  black. 

Without  stopping  to  inquire  about  the  dimen- 
sions of*  the  table  of  that  mighty  monarch,  who, 
according  to  some  retailers  of  wonders,  had  a 
whole  camel  served  to  his  robust  guests,  or 
whether  the  said  thaumaturgists  had  not  misread 
a  passage  which  set  forth  how  the  entertainer,  in 
his  royal  magnificence,  had  sent  away  the  guests, 
after  a  feast  worthy  of  Lucullus  himself,  enriched 
with  golden  crowns,  massive  silver  vases,  slaves, 
and  a  camel  each,  we  may  be  content  with  know- 
ing that  the  milk  and  flesh  of  the  animal  are  said 
to  be  as  welcome  to  the  Arab  as  those  of  the 
reindeer  to  the  Laplander ;  and  as  there  is  too 
frequently  but  one  step  between  the  pleasures  of 
the  table  and  the  prescription  of  the  physician,  let 
us  see  what  the  ancient  pharmacopoeia  owed  to 
the  camel  : — 

His  braine  (by  report)  is  excellent  good  against 
the  epilepsie  or  falling  sicknesse,  if  it  be  dried  and 
drunk  with  vinegar  :  so  doth  the  gall  likewise  taken 
in  drinke  with  hony :  which  also  is  a  good  medi- 
cine for  the  squinancy.J 

In  cases  of  obstinate  alvine  obstruction  a  dried 
camel's  tail  was  held  to  be  infallible.  The  drop- 
pings "  reduced  into  ashes  and  incorporate  with 
oile,  doth  curie  and  frizzle  the  haire  of  the  head." 
This  may  have  been  among  Antony's  cosmetics  : — 
"  The  said  ashes  made  into  a  liniment  and  so 
applied,  yea,  and  taken  in  drink,  as  much  as  a 
man  may  comprehend  with  three  fingers,  careth 

*  For  instance,  an  itinerant  melodist  was  regaling  the 
«ars  of  his  audience  the  other  evening  with  a  racy  com- 
position, which  included  the  following  stave  : — 

As  for  sentiment,  and  that  'ere  stuff, 

It  'a  a  thin;  I  can't  abide  ; 
Give  me  a  jolly  butcher  with  his  apron  on, 

And  his  bull-hitch  by  his  side. 

The  song  was  altogether  suggestive  of  the  owner  of  a 
pair  of  boots  which  Edwin  Landseer  has  immortalized  in 
his  incomparable  "  Low  Life." 

t  Camel-drivers.  t  Holland's  Pliny. 


the  falling  sicknesse  ;"  and,  no  doubt,  "  Great 
Julius"  took  it.  "  The  haire  of  their  tails  twisted 
into  a  wreath  or  cord,  and  so  worn  about  the 
left  arme  in  the  manner  of  a  bracelet,  cureth 
the  quartan  ague  ;"  and  if  Caius  Ligarius  had 
worn  such  an  antidote,  he  might  not  have  suffered 
so  much  from 

That  same  ague  which  had  made  him  lean. 

The  antipathy  between  the  horse  and  the  came! 
no  longer  exists  in  the  East,  where  their  associa- 
tion has  so  long  and  so  continually  been  effected. 
For  many  centuries  the  camel  has  been  the  great 
transporting  power,  where  no  other  vehicle  could 
have  answered  the  purpose.  Old  chronicles  record 
that  the  three  Magian  kings  came  mounted  on 
swift  dromedaries  to  the  adoration  of  "  the  heav'n- 
born  child;"  and  the  slower  race  have  long 
formed  the  great  medium  of  commercial  inter- 
course. As  a  shepherd  knows  his  sheep,  so  do 
the  devidjis  or  camel-drivers  distinguish  their 
camels,  and  they  talk  of  their  points  as  a  jockey 
speaks  of  those  of  a  favorite  horse  ;  nay.  a  Be- 
douin knows  the  print  'of  his  own  camel's  foot, 
and  will  thus  track  it  when  it  has  wandered. 
Nothing  can  be  more  orderly  than  the  progress 
of  the  caravans.  The  camel  moves  like  clock- 
work ;  and  the  caravans  or  strings  of  camels  are. 
Mr.  Macfarlane  tells  us,  always  headed  by  a  little 
ass,  on  which  the  driver  sometimes  rides,  and 
which  has  a  tinkling  bell  round  its  neck.  Each 
camel,  he  adds,  is  commonly  furnished  with  a 
large,  rude,  but  soft  and  pastoral-sounding  bell, 
suspended  to  the  front  of  the  pack  or  saddle.  If 
these  bells  be  removed  by  accident  or  design,  the 
camels,  like  the  mules  of  Spain  and  Italy,  will 
come  to  a  dead  stop ;  and  Mr.  Macfarlane  adds, 
that  like  the  mules  also,  the  camels  always  go 
best  in  a  long  line,  one  after  the  other.  He  tried 
the  experiment  of  the  bell  at  Pergamos.  Two 
stately  camels,  the  foremost  furnished  with  the 
bell,  were  trudging  along  the  road  with  measured 
steps.  The  bell  was  detached  with  a  long  stick. 
The  camels  halted,  nor  could  they  be  urged  for- 
ward till  their  ears  were  regaled  with  the  well- 
known  music.  Mr.  Macfarlane  observes,  that  he 
uses  the  word  "  measured,"  not  as  a  matter  of 
poetry,  but  of  fact ;  and  he  states  that  their  step  is 
so  measured  and  like  clockwork,  that  on  a  plain 
you  know  almost  to  a  yard  the  distance  they  will 
go  in  a  given  time.  In  the  flat  valleys  of  the 
Hermus  and  Caicus  he  made  calculations  with  a 
watch  in  his  hand,  and  found,  hour  after  hour,  an 
unvarying  result,  the  end  of  their  journey  being 
performed  just  at  the  same  pace,  three  miles  an 
hour,  as  the  beginning.  The  camel  is,  indeed, 
the  creature  of  order  and  regularity..  Each  has 
his  prace  in  the  line  ;  and  if  this  be  interfered 
with,  the  beasts  become  disorderly  and  will  not 
march.  "  Each  gets  attached  to  a  particular 
camel  of  the  caravan,  prefers  seeing  his  tail  before 
him  to  that  of  any  other,  and  will  not  go  if  you 
displace  his  friend." 

Bwt  the  Egyptians  do  not  move  in  single  file  ; 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A   NATURALIST. 


39 


they,  on  the  contrary,  march  with  a  wide-extended 
front.  Caravans  from  Bagdad  to  Aleppo  and  Da- 
mascus have  heen  said  to  consist  of  camels  march- 
ing abreast  of  each  other,  and  sometimes  extend- 
ing over  a  space  of  more  than  a  mile. 

Old  authors  notice  the  training  of  camels  to 
move  in  measured  time  by  placing  the  animal  on 
gradually  heated  plates,  and  at  the  same  time 
sounding  a  musical  instrument.  The  carriage  of 
the  head,  so  frequent  a  theme  of  eulogy  with  the 
Arabian  poets,  is  due  to  the  atlas,  which,  besides 
its  articulation  with  the  occipital  condyles,  affords 
support  to  the  lower  jaw.  The  Arabs,  who  have 
among  them  most  imaginative  and  finished  impro- 
visator^ compare  the  elegant  movements  of  a  beau- 
tiful bride  to  those  of  a  young  camel.  The 
Thousand  and  One  Nights,  like  most  clever  fables, 
have  some  foundation  in  fact,  as  is  well  known  to 
the  friends  of  the  Arabian  man  of  rank,  who  keeps 
his  professed  story-teller  as  an  indispensable  part 
of  his  establishment.  African  travellers  relate 
that  these  friends  will  assemble  before  his  tent,  or 
on  the  platform  with  which  the  house  of  a  Moorish 
Arab  is  roofed,  and  there  listen,  night  after  night, 
to  a  consecutive  history,  related  for  sixty  or  even 
one  hundred  nights  in  succession.  The  listeners 
on  such  occasions  have  all  the  air  of  being  spell- 
bound, especially  while  hearing  some  of  their 
native  songs,  which  are  frequently  extemporized, 
full  of  fire,  and  appealing  with  irresistible  force 
.to  the  passions.  "I  have  seen,"  says  Major 
Denham,  "  a  circle  of  Arabs  straining  their  eyes 
with  a  fixed  attention  at  one  moment  and  bursting 
with  loud  laughter  ;  at  the  next  melting  into  tears 
and  clasping  their  hands  in  all  the  ecstasy  of 
grief  and  sympathy."  The  good  camel-driver 
frequently  cheers  his  beast  with  one  of  these  mel- 
odies, and  divides  his  barley-cake  with  those 

Mute  companions  of  his  toils,  that  hear 
In  all  his  griefs  a  more  than  equal  share. 
There,  where  no  springs  in  summers  die  away, 
Or  moss-crowned  fountains  mitigate  the  day. 

But  sometimes  the  poor  slave  suffers  dreadfully 
i'rom  the  zealous  ignorance  of  those  who  have  the 
care  of  him.  The  attention  of  Bishop  Heber, 
when  on  his  journey  to  Cawnpoor,  was  attracted 
by  the  dreadful  groans  of  one  of  the  baggage- 
camels.  He  went  to  the  spot,  and  found  that  two 
of  the  camel-drivers  had  bound  its  legs  in  a  kneel- 
ing posture,  so  that  it  could  not  stir,  and  were 
burning  it  with  hot  irons  in  all  the  fleshy  and 
cartilaginous  parts  of  its  body.  The  good  bishop 
inquired  what  they  were  doing,  and  was  answered 
that  the  camel  had  a  fever  and  wind,  and  would 
die  if  they  did  not  so  treat  it ;  and  die  it  did, 
after  all,  secundum  artem.  Our  French  neighbors 
love  to  be  systematic,  and  thus  classify  the  helpers 
of  men  :  Le  medecin  qui  guerit — he  is  very  rare  ; 
Le  medecin  qui  attend  la  guerison — much  more 
Common,  but  still  comparatively  rare  ;  and  Le 
widecin  qui  tue.  The  camel-doctors  appear  to 
iiave  belonged  to  the  last  and  most  numerous  class, 
hough  the  treatment  seems  to  have  been  somewhat 
imilar  to  that  practised  on  Rodin,  for  cholera,  with 


success.  Immersion  in  water  seems  to  be  most 
injurious  to  the  camel  ;  and  after  being  compelled 
to  pass  through  rivers,  disease  frequently  super- 
venes. It  also  appears  to  be  liable  to  intoxication 
without  drinking  stimulating  liquors.  "  Several 
of  our  camels,"  says  Dr.  Oudney,  "  are  drunk 
to-day.  Their  eyes  are  heavy,  and  want  anima- 
tion ;  gait  staggering,  and  every  now  and  then 
falling  as  a  man  in  a  state  of  intoxication."  This 
arose,  according  to  the  doctor,  from  eating  dates 
after  drinking  water  ;  and  he  accounts  for  the 
effect  on  the  animal  by  the  probable  passing  of  the 
fruit  into  the  spirituous  fermentation  in  its  stomach 
— that  wonderful  stomach,  which  contains  a  series 
of  reservoirs  to  enable  the  desert  ship  to  pursue 
its  voyage  over  the  trackless  and  arid  sands. 
Yes,  it  is  so.  Doubts  have  been  entertained  upon 
the  authority  of  a  celebrated  name,  for  it  has  been 
stated  by  a  distinguished  comparative  anatomist* 
that  John  Hunter  did  not  give  credit  to  this  asser- 
tion. But  upon  looking  to  the  source — and,  as 
Dr.  Johnson  said  of  conversation,  it  is  of  primary 
consequence  in  appreciating  information  to  ascer- 
tain whether  it  comes  from  a  spring  or  a  reservoir 
— we  find  that  Dr.  Patrick  Russell,  the  writer  on 
whom  Sir  Everard  depended  for  this  contradiction 
of  a  generally  received  notion,  states  in  the  appen- 
dix to  his  brother's  History  of  Aleppo,  that  water, 
in  cases  of  distress,  is  taken  from  the  camel's 
stomach,  and  that  it  is  a  fact  neither  doubted  in 
Syria  nor  considered  strange.  The  doctor  con- 
fesses that  he  never  was  himself  in  a  caravan  re- 
duced to  such  an  expedient,  but  he  adds  that  he 
has  no  reason  to  distrust  the  report  of  others,  par- 
ticularly of  the  Arabs  ;  and  he  refers  to  the  his- 
torian Beidawi,  who,  in  relating'  the  prophet's 
expedition  to  Tabuc  against  the  Greeks,  observes 
that,  among  other  miseries  of  the  army,  the  bel- 
ligerents were  reduced  to  the  extremity  of  slaying 
their  camels  to  quench  their  thirst  with  the  water 
contained  in  those  animated  water-skins.  But  fur- 
ther, the  doctor  records  that  on  his  return  from 
the  East  Indies,  in  1789,  having  heard  accidentally 
that  his  friend  Mr.  John  Hunter  had  dissected  a 
camel,  and  was  supposed  to  have  expressed  an 
opinion  that  the  animal's  power  of  preserving 
water  in  its  stomach  was  rather  improbable,  he 
took  an  opportunity  of  conversing  with  that  illus- 
trious physiologist  on  the  subject,  when,  he  says, 
to  the  best  of  his  recollection,  John  Hunter  told 
him  that  he  by  no  means  drew  any  such  absolute 
inference  from  his  dissection  ;  that  he  saw  no 
reason  for  assigning  more  than  four  stomachs  to 
the  camel,  though  he  could  conceive  that  water 
might  be  found  in  the  paunch  little  impregnated 
with  the  dry  provender  of  the  desert,  and  readily 
separating  or  draining  from  it.  The  doctor  then 
goes  into  anatomical  detail,  and  those  who  wish  to 
follow  him  have  only  to  go  to  the  Museum  of  the 
College  of  Surgeons  of  London — the  great  John 
Hunter's  great  monument — where  they  will  find 
the  reticulum,  or  water  bag  of  the  camel,  with 

*  Sir  Everard  Home. 


40 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


such  an  explanation  as  a  catalogue    proceeding 
from  the  pen  of  Professor  Owen  only  could  give. 

Then,  if  we  want  extrinsic  evidence,  we  have 
only  to  call  one  of  the  most  truthful,  amiable  wit- 
nesses, that  ever  left  friends  to  lament  him.  Cap- 
tain Lyon,  upon  the  occasion  of  a  death  of  one  of 
these  animals,  says,  in  his  most  interesting  narra- 
tive,— 

I  never  before  had  an  opportunity  of  observing 
how  water  is  procured  from  the  belly  of  a  cameHo 
satisfy  the  thirst  of  an  almost  perishing  kaffle.* 
It  is  the  false  stomach  which  contains  the  water 
and  undigested  food.  This  is  strained  through  a 
cloth  and  then  drank;  and  from  those  who  have 
been  under  the  necessity  of  making  use  of  the 
beverage  I  learn  that  the  taste  is  bitter.  As  the 
animal  had  recently  drank,  its  stomach  was  nearly 
full. 

The  sailor,  whose  love  of  adventure  had  induced 
him  to  make  a  land  voyage,  and  who  suffered  ac- 
cordingly, (for,  though  full  of  resources,  he  must 
have  been  very  much  like  a  fish  out  of  water — a 
salmon  on  a  gravel  walk,  for  instance,)  amused 
himself  by  making  observations  on  the  skin  and 
skeleton  of  the  defunct ;  and  which  way  do  you 
think  his  thoughts  went  ?  Naturam  expelles,  &c. ; 
but  you  may  be  sure  of  the  recurrence ;  why,  in 
planning  a  boat  out  of  the  remains.  He  found 
that  a  most  excellent  contrivance  might  be  made 
from  them  for  the  purpose  of  crossing  rivers,  the 
back-bone  being  used  as  the  keel  and  the  ribs  as 
timbers.  The  formation  of  the  chest  of  the  camel 
struck  him  as  being  like  nothing  so  much  as  the 
prow  of  a  Portuguese  bean-cod,  or  fishing-boat  ;* 
and,  with  the  frankness  of  a  sailor,  he  adds,  that  it 
was  in  consequence  of  hearing  the  Arabs  always 
calling  it  "  markab,"  or  ship,  that  the  idea  first 
occurred  to  him. 

Ship,  indeed ;  never  was  metaphor  more  true 

Launched  upon  the  sandy  ocean,  where  the  com 

pass  is  not  unfrequently  used,  the  camel  fleet  pur 

sues  its  voyage   until    it   reaches    its    anchoring 

ground  for  the  night  in  some  brake  well  known  t 

the   devidjis,    making    commerce    easy   between 

nations,  to  whom  the  desert  would  otherwise  be 

an  unconquerable  bar,  or  smooths  the  dreary  wa; 

from  Damascus  to  Mecca  for  the  Mahometan  pil 

grim.     The  camel  of  the  caravans  which  trade 

between  Cairo  and  the  interior  to    spots  still  i 

blank  on  the  map  of  the  European  geographe 

becomes  a  slave-ship.     When  one  of  these  slave 

caravans  reaches  the  open  country,  the  miserabl 

slave  has  to  undergo  the  horrors  of  a  sort  of  mi<i 

die-passage  in  the  desert,  though  his  treatment 

terrible  as  it  is,  is  mild  when  compared  with  th 

agonies  of  the  hold.     He  is  made  fast  to  a  Ion 

pole,  one  end  of  which  is  tied  to  a  camel's  saddle 

and  the  other,  which  is  forked,  is  passed  on  eac 

side  of  his  neck  and  tied 'behind  with  strong  core 

so  as  to  render  it  impossible  for  him  to  get  hi 

head  out ;  his  right  hand  is  fastened  to  the  pol 

at  a  short  distance  from  his  head.     Thus,  wit 

*  Caravan. 

t  Phasplus  ille  quern  videtis  hospites.— CATULLUS. 


is  legs  and  left  arm  at  liberty,  the  slave  is,  as  it 
were,  taken  in  tow  by  the  camel,  behind  which  he 
arches  all  day  long,  and  is  cast  off"  at  night  only 
o  be  put  in  irons. 

The  hadj,  or  pilgrim-caravan,  pursues  its  route 
rincipally  by  night,  and  by  torch-light.     Moving 
bout   four   o'clock  in  the    afternoon,  it   travels 
ithout  stopping  till  an  hour  or  two  after  the  sun 
s  above  the  horizon.     The  extent  and  luxury  of 
lese   pilgrimages,  in  ancient   times    especially, 
Imost  exceed  belief.     Haroun,  of  Arabian  Nights' 
elebrity,  performed  the  pilgrimage  no  less  than 
ine  times,  and  with  a  grandeur   becoming  the 
ommander  of  the  faithful.     The  caravan  of  the 
mother  of  the  last  of  the  Abassides  numbered  one 
mndred  and  twenty  thousand  camels.      Nine  hun- 
red  camels  were  employed  merely  in  bearing  the 
wardrobe  of  one  of  the  caliphs,  and  others  carried 
now  with  them  to  cool  their  sherbert.     Nor  was 
Bagdad  alone  celebrated  for  such  pomp  and  luxury 
n   fulfilling  the  directions  of  the  Koran.      The 
•ultan  of  Egypt,  on  one  occasion,  was  accompanied 
>y  five  hundred  camels,  whose  luscious  burdens 
insisted  of  sweetmeats  and  confectionery  only  ; 
while  two  hundred  and  eighty  were  entirely  laden 
with  pomegranates  and  other  fruits.     The  itiner- 
ant larder  of  this  potentate  contained  one  thousand 
eese  and  three  thousand  fowls.     Even  so  late  as 
sixty  years  since,  the  pilgrim-caravan  from  Cairo 
was  six  hours  in  passing  one  who  saw  the  pro- 
:ession. 

The  departure  of  such  an  array,  with  its  thou- 
sands of  camels  glittering  in  every  variety  of  trap- 
pings, some  with  two  brass  field-pieces  each, 
others  with  bells  and  streamers — others,  again, 
with  kettle-drummers,  others  covered  with  purple 
velvet,  with  men  walking  by  their  sides  playing 
on  flutes  and  flageolets — some  glittering  with 
neck  ornaments  and  silver-studded  bridles,  varie- 
gated with  colored  beads,  and  with  nodding  plumes 
of  ostrich-feathers  on  their  foreheads — to  say 
nothing  of  the  noble,  gigantic,  sacred  camel, 
decked  with  cloth  of  gold  and  silk,  his  bridle 
studded  with  jewels  and  gold,  led  by  two  sheiks 
in  green,  with  the  ark  or  chapel  containing  the 
Koran  written  in  letters  of  gold — forms  a  dazzling 
contrast  to  the  spectacle  it  not  unfrequently  pre- 
sents before  its  mission  is  fulfilled.  Numbers  of 
these  gayly-caparisoned  creatures  drop  and  die 
miserably,  and  when  the  pilgrimage  leaves  Mecca 
the  air  is  too  often  tainted  with  the  effluvia  reeking 
from  the  bodies  of  the  camels  that  have  sunk  under 
the  exhausting  fatigue  of  the  march.  After  he 
had  passed  the  Akaba,  near  the  head  of  the  Red 
Sea,  the  whitened  bones  of  the  dead  camels  were 
the  land-marks  which  guided  the  pilgrim  through 
the  sand-wastes,  as  he  was  led  on  by  the  alter- 
nate hope  and  disappointment  of  the  mirage,  or 

"  serab,"  as  the  Arabs  term  it.  Burckhardt 
describes  this  phenomenon  as  seen  by  him  when 
they  were  surrounded  during  a  whole  day's  march 
by  phantom  lakes.  The  color  was  of  the  purest 
azure — so  clear,  that  the  shadows  of  the  mountains 
which  bordered  the  horizon  were  reflected  with 


LEAVES   FROM   THE   NOTE-BOOK   OF   A   NATURALIST. 


41 


extreme  precision ;  and  the  delusion  of  its  being 
a  sheet  of  water  was  thus  rendered  perfect.  He 
had  often  seen  the  mirage  in  Syria  and  Egypt ; 
there  he  always  -found  it  of  a  whitish  color,  like 
morning  mist,  seldom  lying  steadily  on  the  plain, 
almost  continually  vibrating  ;  but  in  the  case  above 
described  the  appearance  was  very  different,  and 
bore  the  most  complete  resemblance  to  water. 
This  exact  similitude  the  traveller  attributes  to 
the  great  dryness  of  the  air  and  earth  in  the  desert 
where  he  beheld  it.  There,  too,  the  appearance 
of  water  approached  much  nearer  than  in  Syria 
and  Egypt,  being  often  not  more  than  two  hundred 
paces  from  the  beholders,  whereas  he  had  never 
seen  it  before  at  a  distance  of  less  than  half-a-mile. 
Will  it  be  believed  that  some  zoologists  (among 
them  we  could  mention  a  great  name* — the  name 
of  one  who  did  glorious  service  in  his  day,  but  who 
was  too  prone  to  attempt  to  put  Nature  in  the 
wrong)  have  endeavored  to  account  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  camel  by  a  theory  based  upon  the 
lengthened  servitude  of  the  animal  ?  Now,  if  you 
grant,  as  you  will  not  if  you  are  wise,  that  the 
callosities  of  the  camel  were  the  result  of  an  infini- 
tesimal series  of  genuflexions,  the  slave-tokens  of 
a  long  submission  to  the  tyrant  man,  what  will 
you  make  of  the  internal  organization — of  the  cis- 
terns which  enable  the  animal  to  live  where  any 
creature  not  so  provided  must  perish  from  thirst 
without  artificial  aid  ?  Here  are  vast  sandy  deserts 
to  be  traversed  before  man  can  communicate  with 
man.  Where  is  the  medium  of  communication  ? 
Nature  presents  an  animal  of  surpassing  endurance, 
capable,  upon  emergency,  of  sustaining  a  thirst  of 
ten  or  twelve  days'  duration.  The  head  is  levelled 
directly  forward,  and  lighted  by  eyes  that  can  look 

*Buffon. 


onward,  and  in  some  degree  backward,  but  which 
are  protected  from  the  downward  stroke  of  the  sun 
by  an  overhanging  orbit  which  prevents  the  camel 
from  looking  upward.  The  nostrils  are  so  formed 
that  the  animal  has  only  to  make  the  muscles  do 
their  duty  to  shut  them  against  the  sand-storm  of 
the  simoon.  From  the  sole  of  the  elastic  foot  to 
the  crown  of  the  well-balanced  head  the  camel  ex- 
ternally is  formed  for  the  destiny  which  it  has  to 
fulfil ;  and  its  internal  structure  is  pregnant  with 
proofs  of  its  adaptation  to  its  own  wants  as  well  as 
the  wants  of  man  on  that  particular  portion  of  the 
earth  where  it  is  most  vigorous ;  if  it  be  taken 
thence  and  transplanted  to  other  localities,  it  does 
its  duty  after  a  fashion,  but  the  breed  dwindles. 

The  geologist  well  knows  that  the  disposition 
of  the  strata,  after  all  the  convulsions  and  disrup- 
tions they  have  undergone,  is  precisely  that  which 
presents  the  most  accommodating  surface  to  man. 
If  they  had  remained  as  they  were  at  first  deposited, 
where  would  he  have  found  that  mineral  wealth 
which  is  the  great  source  of  civilization  ?  It  is 
quite  true  that  this  very  mineral  wealth  is  enabling 
him  to  supersede  the  animal  of  which  we  have 
been  treating,  perhaps  at  too  great  length.  The 
steam-power — Darwin  was  a  great  and  true 
prophet* — may  leave  the  camel  far  behind,  even  in 
the  desert ;  but  no  sound  physiologist  can  contem- 
plate the  creature  without  seeing  in  it  an  over- 
whelming manifestation  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
Creator. 

*  Soon  shall  thy  arm,  unconquered  steam,  afar, 
Drag  the  slow  barge,  or  drive  the  rapid  car. 

This  is  fulfilled.  Who  shall  say  that  the  rest  of  the 
prophecy  may  not  come  to  passl 

Or  on  wide-waving  wings  expanded  bear 
The  flying  chariot  through  the  fields  of  air. 


42 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


PART   VII. 

THE  hen  which  was  induced,  good  easy  Dam 
Partlet,  to  bestow  her  maternal  affection  upon  a 
egg  of  the  wedge-tailed  eagle,  laid  in  the  garde 
of  the  Zoological  Society,  was — it  will  be  in  th 
remembrance  of  those  who  amuse  themselves  b 
looking  into  these  simple  annals — "  left  sitting.' 
The  first  egg  was  laid  on  the  27th  of  February 
in  this  year,  and  was,  it  will  be  recollected,  place 
under  a  common  hen,  but  was  removed  after  th 
expiration  of  twenty-one  days,  in  an  addled  state 
The  second  egg — that  on  which  the  hen  wa 
left  sitting  at  our  last  notice — was  laid  in  the  firs 
week  of  March,  and  was  removed,  after  a  patien 
incubation  of  twenty-two  days,  addled  also. 

On  the  29th  of  March  a  third  egg  was  produced 
but  it  was  destroyed  by  the  parents. 

April  4. — Another  egg  was  this  day  laid,  bu 
no  attempt  was  made  to  get  it  hatched. 

The  imprisoned  parents  made  a  poor  apologi 
for  a  nest  of  birch-broom  and  straw — the  materials 
within  their  reach ;  but,  instead  of  manifestin0 
any  intention  to  do  the  parental  office,  the  birds 
wanted  to  destroy  every  one  of  the  eggs,  and  the 
keeper  found  it  necessary  to  look  very  sharp  to 
prevent  them  from  carrying  their  ovicidal  propen 
sities  into  effect. 

This  reversal  of  the  great  law  of  nature  is  no. 
confined  to  birds.  The  sow  and  the  rabbit,  if  dis- 
turbed at  the  critical  moment,  will  not  unfrequent- 
ly  devour  their  offspring — as  those  know  to  their 
cost,  whose  impatience  has  brought  their  prying 
eyes  to  look  into  the  mystery.  We  forget  that, 
in  their  natural  state,  the  first  care  of  all  verte- 
brated  animals  is  to  hide  their  eggs  or  young. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  insects,  crustaceans,  and 
even  of  molluscous  animals.  In  proportion  as  the 
organization  is  developed,  the  sensitiveness  to  the 
violation  of  this  principle  increases.  The  quad- 
ruped, in  a  state  of  morbid  irritation,  devours  its 
young ;  the  bird  forsakes  its  nest,  or  destroys  the 


When,  however,  this  great  operation  of  nature 
is  effected  in  secrecy,  and  the  storge  of  the  parents 
is  unchecked,  the  vertebrata,  and  especially  the 
more  highly-developed  classes,  will  risk  anything 
short  of  life  for  the  protection  of  their  young,  and 
not  unfrequently  will  lay  that  down  in  defence  of 
their  offspring. 

In  cases  of  extreme  urgency,  gregarious  quad- 
rupeds dispose  of  their  young  with  the  most  pa- 
rental care,  placing  them  in  the  middle,  so  that 
when  the  battle  rages  they  may  have  the  best 
chance  of  safety.  Thus,  by  the  divine  law,  pres- 
ervation follows  generation,  and  is  most  conspic- 
uously manifested  while  the  offspring  is  of  tender 
age,  and  unable  to  provide  for  its  own  support. 
Among  the  mammiferous  animals,  a  reciprocity  of 
benefits  is  established,  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  mother  or  the  child  feels  the  greatest 
enjoyment  in  imparting  or  receiving  the  full  tide 
of  maternal  nourishment.  Even  that  grand  in- 


carnate fiend,  Lady  Macbeth,  is  compelled  to 
say —  , 

I  have  given  sucke,  and  know 
How  tender  'tis  to  love  the  babe  that  milkes  me.* 

Moreover,  a  sort  of  instinctive  distributive  justice 
is  established  in  the  breast  of  the  mother,  when 
the  case  requires  it.  Thus,  as  a  general  rule,  it 
will  be  found  that  an  ewe  which  brings  forth  two 
lambs  at  a  time,  will  not  admit  one  to  her  teats 
unless  the  other  be  present  and  partaking  ;  other- 
wise one  might  famish,  while  the  other  would 
grow  fat. 

This  manifestation,  for  the  most  part,  suits  the 
tyrant  man,  and  therefore,  in  all  convenient  cases, 
he  very  blandly  suffers  nature  to  take  her  course. 
The  Laplander  cannot  afford  to  be  so  benevolent. 
The  female  reindeer  drops  her  fawn  about  the 
middle  of  May,  and  gives  milk  from  the  end  of 
June  to  the  middle  of  October.  Now  few  moth- 
ers are  more  extremely  fond  of  their  young  than 
these  does.  If  they  lose  one,  they  seek  it  every- 
where, and,  if  it  be  to  be  found,  never  rest  till 
they  have  discovered  it,  The  Laplander,  there- 
fore, knows  better  than  to  separate  the  doe  from 
the  fawn.  Morning  and  evening  the  herd  is 
brought  up  to  be  milked.  A  rope,  both  ends  of 
which  are  held  in  the  hand  of  the  assistant,  is  cast 
over  the  neck  of  the  doe,  and  she  is  thus  com- 
pelled to  submit,  giving  about  a  pint.  This  might 
seem  to  be  a  sufficient  fraud  upon  the  poor  fawn, 
>ut  no.  As  soon  as  the  pint  is  abstracted,  the 
teats  of  the  doe  are  anointed  with  a  preparation 
most  offensive  to  the  fawn,  which  thus,  notwith- 
standing its  intense  disgust,  gets  just  enough  to 
reserve  life,  and  no  more,  and  leaves  the  poor 
mother  with  a  comparatively  full  udder  to  enrich 
he  dairy  of  her  honest  master. 

All  animals  of  a  high  grade  show  the  greatest 
distress  if  their  young  are  taken  from  them,  and 
will,  if  necessary,  fight  stoutly  in  their  defence. 
rn  that  most  revolting  case  of  the  vivisection  of  a 
>oor  bitch,  she  endeavored  to  lick  her  puppies  in 
he  midst  of  her  tortures,  and  when  they  were 
emoved,  uttered  the  most  plaintive  cries. 

The  crew  of  the  discovery-ship  Carcass,  sent 
ti  an  exploring  voyage  to  the  North  Pole,  in  the 
ast  century,  witnessed  a  most  touching  instance 
f  maternal  affection,  which  seems,  however,  to 
ave  had  no  effect  on  the  hearts  of  some  of  those 
who  beheld  it. 

The  ship  was  locked  in  the  ice,  and,  early  one 
morning,  the  man  at  the  mast-head  gave  notice 
lat  three  bears  were  approaching  over  the  frozen 
ea,  invited,  doubtless,  by  the  scent  of  some  blub- 
er  of  a  walrus,  killed  by  the  crew  a  few  days 
efore,  which  had  been  set  on  fire,  and  was  burn- 
ng  on  the  ice.  The  visitors  proved  to  be  a  she- 
car  and  her  two  cubs,  the  latter  nearly  as  large 
s  the  dam.  They  ran  eagerly  to  the  fire,  drew 
way  part  of  the  flesh  of  the  walrus  that  remained 
nconsumed,  and  devoured  it.  Then  the  crew 

*  Folio. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


from  the  ship  cast  great  lumps  of  walrus-flesh, 
which  still  remained,  to  them.  These  the  old 
bear  fetched  away  one  by  one,  laying  every  lump 
before  her  cubs,  dividing  it  into  shares,  and  re- 
serving only  a  small  portion  for  herself.  As  the 
unsuspecting  mother  was  fetching  away  the  last 
piece,  the  men  levelled  their  muskets  at  the  cubs 
and  shot  them  both  dead.  They  then  wounded 
the  dam,  but  not  mortally.  The  rest  must  be 
told  in  the  words  of  the  relater  : — 

It  would  have  drawn  tears  of  pity  from  any  but 
unfeeling  minds,  to  have  marked  the  affectionate 
concern  expressed  by  this  poor  beast  in  the  dying 
moments  of  her  expiring  young.  Though  she  was 
sorely  wounded,  and  could  but  just  crawl  to  the 
place  where  they  lay,  she  carried  the  lump  of  flesh 
she  had  fetched  away,  as  she  had  done  others  be- 
fore, tore  it  in  pieces  and  laid  it  down  before  them  ; 
and  when  she  saw  that  they  refused  to  eat,  she  laid 
her  paws  first  upon  one,  and  then  upon  the  other, 
and  endeavored  to  raise  them  up  ;  all  this  while  it 
was  pitiful  to  hear  her  moan.  When  she  found  she 
could  not  stir  them,  she  went  off,  and  when  she 
had  got  at  some  distance,  looked  back  and  moaned  ; 
and  that  not  availing  her  to  entice  them  away,  she 
returned,  and,  smelling  round  them,  began  to  lick 
their  wounds.  She  went  off  a  second  time  as  be- 
fore ;  and  having  crawled  a  few  paces,  looked 
again  behind  her,  and  for  some  time  stood  moaning. 
But  still  her  cubs  not  rising  to  follow  her,  she 
returned  to  them  again,  and  with  signs  of  inexpres- 
sible fondness  went  round  one,  and  round  the  other, 
pawing  them  and  moaning.  Finding  at  last  that  they 
were  cold  and  lifeless,  she  raised  her  head  towards 
the  ship  and  growled  a  curse  upon  the  murderers, 
which  they  returned  with  a  volley  of  musket-balls. 
She  fell  between  her  cubs,  and  died  licking  their 
wounds.* 

Birds,  at  other  times  the  most  timid  of  creatures, 
will  boldly  attack  the  spoiler  of  their  nests  and 
young.  Thrushes,  and  even  smaller  birds,  have 
been  known  to  do  battle  with  magpies,  jays,  crows, 
hawks,  nest-robbing  school-boys,  and  even  men. 
The  common  hen  will  show  fight  to  kites,  dogs, 
cats,  and  unfeathered  bipeds,  if  they  come  near  their 
chickens  with  sinister  intentions,  or  even  if  they 
approach  too  closely.  White,  in  his  delightful 
book,  mentions  an  instance  of  the- fury  with  which 
some  plundered  hens  wreaked  their  vengeance 
upon  a  reiver,  when,  afier  repeated  predatory  acts, 
they  had  him  in  their  power.  He  relates  that  a 
neighboring  gentleman,  one  summer,  had  lost 
most  of  his  chickens  by  a  sparrow-hawk,  that 
came  gliding  down  between  a  fagot-pile  and  the 
end  of  his  house  to  the  place  where  the  coops 
stood.  The  owner,  vexed  to  see  his  flock  dimin- 
ishing, hung  a  setting  net  adroitly  between  the 
pile  and  the  house,  into  which  the  caitiff  dashed 
and  was  caught : — 

Resentment  (continues  the  historian  of  Selborne) 
suggested  the  law  of  retaliation  ;  he  therefore  clip- 
ped the  hawk's  wings,  cut  off  his  talons,  and,  fixing 
a  cork  on  his  bill,  threw  him  down  among  the 
brood-hens.  Imagination  cannot  paint  the  scene 
that  ensued ;  the  expressions  that  fear,  rage  and 
revenge  inspired  were  new,  or  at  least  such  as  had 
*  Annual  Register,  1775,  signed  "Marinus." 


been  unnoticed  before.  The  exasperated  matron* 
upbraided,  they  execrated,  they  insulted,  they 
triumphed.  In  a  word,  they  never  desisted  from 
buffeting  their  adversary  till  they  had  torn  him  in. 
a  hundred  pieces. 

Ready  and  willing,  however,  as  the  parents  are 
to  defend  their  young  against  fearful  odds,  that 
modification  of  reason,  which  I  have  observed  fre- 
quently to  accompany  mere  instinct,  operates  oc- 
casionally to  induce  them  to  acquiesce  patiently 
when  help  is  required  and  given. 

Every  one  has  heard  of  partridges  falling  into 
cracks  ;  and  many  have  looked  upon  these  "  acci- 
dents" as  inventions  of  John  to  account  for  the 
absence  of  eggs  and  birds  which  have  found  their 
way  to  distant  parts  per  rail.  But  that  such  mis- 
fortunes do  really  happen  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

In  a  clayey  country,  in  Somersetshire,  where 
the  cracks,  one  hot  summer,  had  become  danger- 
ous, even  for  dogs,  two  old  birds  were  seen  one 
fine  morning  in  June,  "  in  great  trouble."  Upon 
looking  about  near  the  spot  where  they  had  been 
disturbed,  a  huge  crack  was  seen  to  yawn,  which, 
though  not  quite  so  big  as  the  gulf  into  which 
Vathek  tumbled  the  fair  boys  whom  he  offered  to 
the  insatiate  Giaour,  was  all-sufficient  for  the  pur- 
pose of  swallowing  up  young  partridges.  The  old 
birds  had  been  scratching  about  the  edge  of  the 
crack,  where  "  they  had  done  more  harm  than 
good."  Upon  looking  in,  a  dozen  young  one* 
were  seen  down  in  the  crack.  They  were  hooked 
out,  one  by  one,  with  a  stick,  and  the  parents 
stood,  "  not  more  than  a  pole  off,"  anxiously 
watching  the  operation,  and  receiving  each  of  their 
offspring  as  it  ran  from  the  edge. 

A  hen,  which  was  most  pugnacious,  flying 
fiercely  at  every  one  who  came  near  her  chickens, 
had  wandered  with  her  brood  near  a  fagot-pilor 
into  which  they  had  scrambled,  and  had  contrived 
so  to  entangle  themselves  that  they  could  not  get 
out.  The  piercing  cries  of  the  bewildered  chick* 
were  equalled  by  the  fidgety  clucks  and  gestures 
of  the  mother.  But  when  assistance  came,  in- 
stead of  buffeting  the  helper,  she  stood  patiently 
waiting  till,  after  taking  off  some  of  the  fagots, 
he  caught  her  chickens  and  restored  them  to  her. 

A  mare  brought  forth  a  foal  some  eight  or  ten 
days  before  its  time.  The  foal  was  attacked  with 
spasms  in  the  stomach  and  bowels,  and,  as  it  gen- 
erally happens  in  cases  of  premature  birth  among 
horses,  died.  Every  aid  that  could  be  thought  of 
was  given  ;  medicines  were  administered,  and  the 
mare  stood  quietly  watching  the  helpers,  as  if 
conscious  of  the  need  of  its  offspring,  as  long  a» 
the  foal  was  in  her  sight ;  but  the  moment  it  was- 
removed  she  became  violent. 

White  mentions  the  case  of  an  old  hunting- 
mare,  which  ran  on  the  common,  and  which, 
being  taken  very  ill,  came  down  into  the  village, 
as  it  were  to  implore  the  help  of  men,  and  died 
the  night  following  in  the  street. 

It  is  a  common  and  not  very  considerate  prac- 
tice to  put  duck's  eggs  under  a  broody  hen  :  and 
it  must  be  confessed  that,  generally  speaking,  a 


44 


LEAVES   FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


more  numerous  and  healthy  lot  of  ducklings  are 
hatched,  than  when  the  domestic  duck  herself  sits 
upon  them.  For  she  is  apt  to  be  fidgety,  and — 
haunted,  perhaps,  by  some  notions  of  her  origi- 
nal free  state,  and  of  the  fresh  nest  amid  the  frogs, 
and  herbage  of  the  river-side — frequently  will  not 
sit  close  in  confinement.  But  no  bird  sits  closer 
or  better  than  the  common  wild  duck,  or  brings 
out  more  numerous  and  vigorous  young.  Nor 
are  there  wanting  instances,  especially  about  mills 
and  farms  near  some  running  stream  or  lake,  of 
the  domestic  duck  sitting  as  close  and  unweariedly 
as  the  most  persevering  hen.  In  many  home- 
steads, however,  which  are  distant  from  rivers  or 
brooks,  the  terrestrial  foster-mother  is  preferred  ; 
and  when  the  young  ones  are  hatched,  the  moment 
they  see  the  pond,  in  they  all  go,  to  the  unspeak- 
able distress  of  the  hen,  which  remains  clucking 
and  crying  on  the  edge,  using  every  call  and  ges- 
ture in  her  power  to  rescue  them  from  the  de- 
struction which  she  thinks  must  be  their  portion  : 
nay,  the  distracted  parent  will  in  her  agony  some- 
times actually  take  water,  at  the  risk  of  her  own  life, 
to  preserve,  as  she  thinks,  theirs.  All  this  time 
the  ducklings  are  swimming  about  with  the  utmost 
complacency,  catching  flies  and  amusing  themselves 
in  the  element  to  which  their  unaided  instinct  has 
led  them,  in  spite  of  the  indignant  remonstrances 
of  their  foster-mother,  and  the  obstacles  which  she 
opposes  to  their  indomitable  will. 

It  was  thought  advisable  in  our  poultry-yard  to 
adopt  the  plan  of  raising  ducklings  under  a  hen  ; 
but,  in  order  to  lessen  the  amount  of  suffering, 
one  particular  hen  was  selected  for  this  office  as 
long  as  she  was  fitted  for  the  purpose  of  incuba- 
tion. The  first  year  was,  of  course,  a  sore  trial ; 
but  experience,  and  that  modification  of  reason  to 
which  I  have  above  alluded,  had  their  effect ;  and, 
in  the  subsequent  years,  she  would  lead  her  pal- 
mipede brood  to  the  water,  calmly  see  them  launch 
out  on  its  surface,  and  remain  quietly  dusting  her- 
self on  the  dry,  sunny  bank,  with  the  utmost  un- 
concern. She  was  a  buff-colored  hen,  of  the 
Dorking  breed,  and  more  than  once  brought  out 
two  broods  of  ducklings  in  the  same  year. 

Birds,  in  a  domesticated  or  semi-domesticated 
state,  like  other  parents  of  a  higher  grade,  appear 
to  derive  pleasure  from  exhibiting  their  hopeful 
offspring  so  as  to  attract  observation  and  admiration. 

On  the  10th  of  April  last,  in  an  early  walk 
through  St.  James'  Park,  I  saw  on  the  gravel  by 
the  water's  edge,  on  the  south  side,  two  black 
swans,  which  had  brought  over  their  two  newly- 
hatched,  gray,  downy  powder-puffs  of  nestlings, 
with  black  bills  and  feet,  from  the  island  where 
they  had  first  seen  the  light,  as  if  to  show  them 
in  their  pride  to  the  passers-by,  of  whom  a  little 
crowd  had  collected  round  them,  apparently  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  parents.  To  be  sure, 
they  had  the  lake  to  retreat  to,  if  any  danger  had 
threatened.  After  standing  to  be  admired  a  short 
time,  the  whole  party  again  took  water  and 
rowed  over  to  their  island.  In  the  afternoon, 
between  five  and  six,  I  saw  the  old  birds  close  to 


the  bank,  but  without  their  young  ones.  They 
had  hatched  three;  but  the  "gander,"  as  the 
keeper  somewhat  irreverently  called  the  male 
swan,  trod  on  one  in  the  nest,  and  killed  it.  I 
say  "  irreverently,"  for,  as  among  barn-door  fowls, 
we  have  a  cock  and  a  hen,  we  have,  among  swans, 
a  cob  and  a  pen. 

April  22. — A  friend  told  me  on  Saturday  that 
he  had  seen  a  Swallow  in  Kent  on  the  18th.  I 
looked  out  to-day  over  the  water  in  St.  James' 
Park,  but  saw  none ;  and  I  was  in  the  Regent's 
Park  yesterday  without  meeting  with  a  single  hi- 
rundo  of  any  species.  My  friends,  the  black 
swans,  have  contrived  to  kill  another  cygnet,  with 
their  great  splay  feet,  probably,  and  now  go  about 
with  one  only.  Very  proud 'of  it  they  seem  to  be. 
By  the  way,  it  appears  that  the  Canada  geese,* 
the  ganders  especially,  are  most  destructive  to  the 
nestlings  of  other  birds  during  the  breeding  season. 
The  gander  will  not  suffer  anything  to  live,  if  it 
can  help  it,  in  the  neighborhood  of  its  nest.  Duck- 
lings, goslings,  cygnets,  all  fall  before  its  violence. 
A  pair  are  sitting  in  the  park,  and  the  gander  an- 
nihilates every  young  bird  of  any  other  species 
that  appears  on  his  domain,  and  comes  within  his 
power.  Great  fears  are  now  entertained  for  a  fine 
brood  of  fourteen  young  wild-ducks  just  hatched  in 
his  vicinity. 

When  this  meets  the  eye  of  those  who  read 
such  trifles,  nidification  may  be  considered,  with 
few  exceptions,  as  being  over  for  this  year.  How 
varied  are  the  nests,  from  the  merest  rough  col- 
lection of  straw  and  litter  to  the  elegant  elaborate 
little  domicile  now  before  me  ! — 

What  nice  hand, 

With  twenty  years'  apprenticeship  to  boot, 
Will  make  me  such  another? 

It  is  the  work  of  a  goldfinch  ;  a  labor  of  love 
executed  in  secret.  How  carefully  constructed, 
with  what  an  eye  to  the  color  of  surrounding  ob- 
jects, so  that  there  may  be  the  least  risk  of  dis- 
covery ! 

The  expedients  to  which  small  birds  have  re- 
course to  thwart  detection  when  they  are  conscious 
that  they  are  surprised  in  the  act  of  bearing  mate- 
rials for  making  their  nests,  or  conveying  food  to 
their  young,  are  amusing. 

On  Easter  Sunday,  as  I  was  passing  along  the 
foot-way  that  borders  the  National  Gallery — 
(thank  Punch  and  The  Times,  the  Vernon  collec- 
tion is  at  last  to  be  disinterred  from  the  vault  to 
which  a  grateful  government  had  consigned  it) — 
I  saw  a  sparrow  fly  down  to  the  neighboring 
hackney-carriage-stand,  and  pick  lip  a  very  long 
straw,  with  which  it  flew,  with  some  labor,  to- 
wards the  building.  The  long,  streaming  straw, 
attracted  the  attention  of  some  of  the  pedestrians, 
who  stopped  and  looked  at  the  loaded  little  bird, 
which  was  directing  its  flight  towards  the  portico 
of  the  gallery  ;  but  finding  its  motions  watched,  it 
turned  short  round  and  pitched  with  its  straw  on 
one  of  the  window-sills,  and  the  people  then  passed 
on.  Presently  it  flew  again  towards  the  portico ; 

*  Anscr  Canadensis ;  L'Oie  d  cravate  of  the  French. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


45 


but  the  people  again  stopping  and  looking — for  if 
one  passenger  stops  and  looks  up  in  a  great  Lon- 
don thoroughfare,  you  have  in  a  very  few  moments 
an  increasing  crowd — it  flew  back  to  another  win- 
dow ;  and  the  second  lot  of  gazers  went  their 
way.  The  little  bird  then  started  again  with  its 
straw  towards  one  of  the  same  pillars,  and,  cutting 
round  it,  so  as  to  avoid  prying  eyes  as  much  as 
possible,  bore  it  to  the  capital  of  one  of  the  pilas- 
ters and  disappeared,  straw  and  all,  into  the  snug 
nook,  made  by  a  part  of  the  projecting  ornament, 
which  it  had  chosen  as  the  place  for  making  its 
nest.  The  wary  bird  was  not  disposed  to  let  an 
inquisitive  public  know  the  way  to  its  home.  On 
many  other  occasions  I  have  observed  these  and 
other  birds  remain,  waiting  about  for  a  long  time 
with  nest-materials  and  food  in  their  bills  when 
they  have  perceived  that  I  was  watching  them  ; 
but  the  moment  I  turned  my  head  they  were  off 
with  their  burden  to  the  nest.  This  would  not  be 
worth  mentioning,  were  it  not  so  difficult  to  find 
persons  who  will  use  their  eyes  to  some  purpose. 

The  careful  preparation  and  anxious  conceal- 
ment manifested  by  the  generality  of  birds  in  the 
process  of  nidification  can  only  be  equalled  by  the 
ardor  of  the  consequent  incubation.  But  there  is 
no  rule  without  an  exception,  as  we  shall  presently 
see. 

In  the  Book  of  Job*  we  find  mention  made  of 
the  ostrich  : — 

Which  leaveth  his  egges  in  the  earth  and  maketh 
them  hole  in  the  dust, 

And  forgetteth  that  the  foote  might  scatter  them, 
or  that  the  wilde  beast  might  brake  them. 

Hee  sheweth  himselfe  cruell  unto  his  yong  ones 
as  they  were  not  his,  and  is  without  feare,  as  if  he 
travailed  in  vaine. 

For  God  hath  deprived  him  of  Wisedome,  and 
hath  given  him  no  part  of  understanding. 

The  following  note  is  appended  to  v.  17  : — 

They  write  that  the  ostrich  covereth  her  egges 
in  the  sand,  and  because  the  countrey  is  hote,  and 
the  sun  still  keepeth  them  warme,  they  are  hatched. 

The  masculine  gender  is  used  in  the  text,  and 
we  know  that  in  a  kindred  genus,  the  emeu,  or 
New  Holland  cassowary  ,|  the  eggs  are  hatched 
by  the  male.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  os- 
triches incubate,  though  during  the  heat  of  the 
day  the  parent  birds  may  leave  them  to  the  high 
temperature  of  the  climate  in  order  to  avoid  a  de- 
gree which  might  be  fatal  to  the  vitality  of  the 
eggs.  Captain  Lyon  states  that  all  the  Arabs  agree 
respecting  the  manner  in  which  these  birds  sit  on 
their  eggs.  They  are  not,  he  says,  left  to  be 
hatched  by  the  warmth  of  the  sun,  but  the  parent 
bird  forms  a  rough  nest,  in  which  she  covers  from 
fourteen  to  eighteen  eggs,  and  regularly  sits  on 
them  in  the  same  manner  as  the  common  fowl  does 
on  her  chickens-;  the  male  occasionally  relieving 
the  female.  It  is  during  the  breeding  season,  he 
adds,  that  the  greatest  numbers  are  procured,  the 
Arabs  shooting  the  old  ones  while  on  their  nests. 

*  Chap,  xxxix.  v.  17,  etseq.;  Barker's  Bible,  1613. 
t  Dromaius  Novcc  Hollandice. 


By  the  way,  Captain  Lyon  remarks,  that  at  all  the 
three  towns,  Sockna,  Hoon,  and  Wadan,  it  is  the 
custom  to  keep  tame  ostriches  in  a  stable,  and  in 
two  years  to  take  three  cuttings  of  their  feathers. 
He  imagined  from  what  he  saw  of  the  skins  of 
ostriches  brought  for  sale,  that  all  the  fine  feathers 
sent  to  Europe  are  from  tame  birds ;  the  wild 
ones  being  generally  so  ragged  and  torn,  that  not 
above  half-a-dozen  good  perfect  ones  can  be  found. 
The  white  feathers  are  what  Captain  Lyon  alludes 
to  ;  the  black  ones,  being  shorter  and  more  flexi- 
ble, are  generally  good. 

Various  statements  have  been  made  as  to  the 
number  of  eggs,  and  from  eight  to  ten  have  been 
mentioned  as  found  together.  The  latter  is  the 
number  assigned  by  Le  Vaillant  to  a  single  fe- 
male. But  he  disturbed  one  from  a  nest  contain- 
ing thirty  eggs,  surrounded  by  thirteen  others. 
He  watched  this  nest,  and  observed  four  females 
in  succession  sit  upon  them  during  the  day. — 
This  appears  to  have  been  a  sort  of  nest  in  co- 
partnership, such  as  turkeys  and  other  incubating 
birds  that  make  their  nests  upon  the  ground 
will  sometimes  enter  into.*  The  nest  of  the  os- 
trich appears  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  pit  of  sand 
some  three  feet  in  diameter,  the  sand  being  thrown 
up  so  as  to  form  a  raised  edge  around  it. 

From  this  modified  and  somewhat  loose  degree 
of  incubation  we  pass  to  the  exception  to  the  gen- 
aral  rule  to  which  we  have  above  alluded. 

The  visitors  to  the  garden  of  the  Zoological 
Society  of  London,  in  the  Regent's  Park,  may  see 
a  plain-looking,  sombre  bird,  with  a  considerable 
share  of  tail,  of  a  size  between  a  common  fowl 
and  a  curassow,f  walking  and  picking  about  as  if 
it  were  looking  for  something  it  ought  to  find  but 
cannot.  It  is,  at  present,  in  the  great  aviary  on 
the  south  side,  on  the  right  after  entering  the  gate 
from  the  road.  This  is  the  brush  turkey  %  of  the 
colonists  of  New  Holland,  the  iveelah  of  the  abo- 
rigines of  the  Namoi.  If  any  one  should  inform 
an  unitiated  visitor  that  the  bird  before  him  never\ 
sits  upon  its  eggs,  but  plants  them  in  a  hotbed,  as 

*  In  the  county  of  Somerset  the  mowers  found,  near  an 
outlying  barn  where  poultry  were  in  the  habit  of  picking 
about,  a  partridge's  nest,  with  several  unhatched  part- 
ridge's eggs  and  the  shells  of  three  eggs  of  the  common 
hen,  with  all  the  appearances  indicative  of  their  having 
contained  chickens.  Afterwards,  when  they  were  cutting 
wheat,  a  brace  of  partridges  and  three  common  chickens 
got  up  and  flew  off ;  but  the  chickens  could  not  keep  up 
with  the  partridges  and  were  caught  by  the  mowers. 
These  were  evidently  the  produce  of  the  hen's  eggs,  which 
must  have  been  laid  by  the  hen  in  the  nest  of  the  partridge, 
the  hen  having  been  attracted  most  probably  by  the  sight 
of  the  partridge's  eggs.  Now  it  is  well  known  that  the 
incubation  of  a  partridge  is  of  longer  duration  than  that  of 
a  hen.  When,  therefore,  the  common  hen's  eggs  were 
hatched,  the  hen  partridge  must  have  hurried  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  rest  of  the  eggs  (her  own)  were  bad,  and 
that  it  was  of  no  use  to  waste  further  time  upon  them  ; 
whereupon  she  went  away  with  her  foster-chickens, 
leaving  her  own  eggs  to  their  fate. 

Here  we  have  an  instance  of  misled  instinct.  Nor  is 
the  facility  with  which  the  chickens  appear  to  have  ac- 
commodated themselves  to  the  wild  habits  of  their  foster- 
parents,  so  far  as  their  powers  would  permit,  uninstruct- 
ive.  They  were  in  a  fair  way  of  returning  to  savage  life  ; 
and,  if  a  similar  accident  had  happened  in  an  uninhabited 
or  uncultivated  country,  who  shall  say  what  results  might 
have  sprung  from  the  connexion. 

t  Crax.  t  TalegaUa  Lathami  (Gould.) 


46 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF    A  NATURALIST. 


a  man  might  plant  cucumber  and  melon  seeds,  he 
would  he  taken  for  the  most  notorious  fabulist 
since  the  days  of  Bidpai.  If  he  should  enlighten 
the  neophyte  further,  and  instruct  him  that  the 
birds  collect  the  materials  for  this  hotbed  them- 
selves, and  bide  their  time  till  the  fermentation 
has  reached  the  proper  point,  till,  like  the  patent 
incubator,  it  is  fit  for  hatching  the  eggs,  he  would 
stand  a  very  good  chance  of  being  set  down  as  a 
member  of  the  great  family  of  Munchausen,  of 
adventurous  and  marvellous  memory.  But  nothing 
is  more  true. 

The  brush  turkey  belongs  to  a  family  of  birds — 
or,  if  you  wish  to  be  hypercritical,  learned  reader, 
a  sub-family — which  never  incubate,  but  having 
collected  vegetable  materials — which  they  know 
will  heat  to  a  proper  point  without,  like  an  ill- 
saved  hayrick,  bursting  out  into  combustion,  or 
getting  up  into  a  sullen  baking  point,  which  would 
be  equally  destructive  of  the  vital  principle — leave 
their  eggs  to  the  genial  warmth  of  this  half-nat- 
ural, half-artificial  mother. 

The  genera  of  this  family  at  present  known  are 
Talegalla,  Leipoa,  and  Megapodius,  all  inhabitants 
of  that  marvellous  country  which  seems  to  be  a 
remnant  still  left  to  give  us  a  notion  of  a  very  an- 
cient state  of  this  planet. 

Talegalla  Lathami  has  been  in  its  time  a  sore 
puzzle  to  systematists.  More  than  one  have  made 
it  a  vulture,  and  have  seized  upon  it  as  such  to  fill 
up  a  blank  in  a  favorite  system.  It  is  no  such 
thing.  If  you  wish  to  see  a  perfect  image  of  the 
bird,  possess  yourself  of  Mr.  Gould's  admirable 
work  on  The  Birds  of  Australia.  He  has  the 
merit  of  first  clearing  up  this  dark  chapter  in  or- 
.nithology,  and  any  amusement  or  instruction  which 
may  be  derived  from  the  perusal  of  this  portion  of 
this  paper  is  due  to  him.  He  is  of  opinion  that 
the  natural  situation  of  the  bird  is  among  the 
rasorial  forms,  and  that  it  is  one  of  a  great  family 
peculiar  to  Australia  and  the  Indian  Islands,  of 
which  Megapodius  constitutes  a  part ;  and,  in  con- 
, formation  of  his  view,  he  notices  the  two  deep 
emarginations  of  the  sternum,  so  truly  character- 
istic of  the  gallinaceous  race.  He  is  right. 

The  upper  surface  of  the  adult  male,  its  wings 
and  tail,  are  of  a  blackish  brown ;  but,  on  the 
.under  surface,  the  feathers  are  blackish  brown  at 
the  base,  going  into  silver-gray  at  the  ends.  The 
skin  of  the  head  and  neck  is  of  a  deep  pink,  verg- 
ing on  red,  and  thinly  sprinkled  with  short  hair, 
like  feathers  of  a  blackish  brown.  His  wattle  is 
•of  a  bright  yellow,  tinged  with  red  where  it  joins 
the  red  of  the  neck.  His  bill  is  black,  and  the 
irides  of  his  eyes  and  his  feet  are  brown. 

In  size,  the  female  is  about  a  fourth  less  than 
he  male,  but  very  similar  in  color,  only  her  wat- 
tle is  less  extensive. 

Size  of  well-developed  specimens,  nearly  that 
of  a  turkey. 

Now  for  the  habits  of  this  extraordinary  feath- 
ered biped. 

The  brush  turkey  is  gregarious,  going  in  small 
companies,  and  very  wary  and  suspicious.  Like 


the  pheasants  and  some  others  of  the  gallinaceous 
tribe  it  is  a  cunning  runner,  and  often  escapes 
through  the  mazes  of  the  brush.  The  native  dog 
is  their  great  enemy,  and  when  this  destroyer  is 
upon  them,  and,  indeed,  whenever  they  are  hard 
pressed,  if  the  opportunity  offers,  they  all  spring 
upon  the  lowest  bough  of  a  tree,  leaping  from 
branch  to  branch  till  they  reach  the  top.  There 
they  either  perch  or  take  wing  to  another  part  of 
the  cover.  When  undisturbed,  they  seek  the 
sheltering  branches  of  trees  during  the  heats  of  the 
day.  The  sportsman  knows  this,  and,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  their  fatal  siesta,  knocks  them  over  one 
after  the  other  ;  for  they  take  no  warning  from 
the  fate  of  their  companions,  remaining  to  be  shot 
at  till  all  are  bagged,  or  the  sportsman  is  tired  of 
plying  his  gun. 

In  all  this  there  is  nothing  very  extraordinary, 
surely  ? 

Certainly  not,  observing  sir,  or  madam  ;  but 
patience. 

It  is  in  the  reproduction  of  the  species  that  the 
anomalous  proceedings  of  the  bird  are  manifested. 
Collecting  gradually  a  quantity  of  decaying  vege- 
tables, the  bird  makes  a  hotbed.  Several  weeks 
are  patiently  employed  in  bringing  the  materials 
together,  till,  at  length,  a  mound,  consisting  of  a 
congeries  of  from  two  to  four  cart-loads,  is  formed. 
But  it  must  not  be  considered  as  the  labor  of  an 
individual,  or  of  a  pair,  for  many  join  in  the  work. 
When  once  established,  a  forcing-bed  of  this  de- 
scription does  duty  for  many  years  ;  that  is,  the 
same  site  is  resorted  to,  and  as  the  lower  part 
decomposes  the  birds  superadd  an  additional  sup- 
ply previous  to  depositing  their  eggs. 

In  the  construction  of  the  most  elaborate  of 
bird's-nests  the  bill  is  the  principal  instrument  of 
action,  the  feet  performing  a  very  subordinate 
part  in  the  operation.  In  the  instance  before  us 
the  case  is  reversed.  The  foot  is  the  agent  in 
collecting  and  depositing ;  the  bill  is  not  used  for 
those  purposes  at  all.  The  bird  grasps  a  quantity 
in  its  foot,  throwing  it  backwards  to  the  common 
centre  of  deposit.  The  surface  of  the  adjoining 
ground  is  thus  cleared  for  a  considerable  distance 
so  completely  that  hardly  a  leaf  or  blade  of  grass 
is  left.  When  this  pyramidal  vegetable  mound 
has  had  a  sufficient  time  to  heat,  so  as  to  be  of  the 
proper  temperature,  the  large  eggs  are  inserted, 
not  side  by  side,  as  in  ordinary  cases,  but  planted 
at  regular  distances  from  each  other,  some  nine  or 
twelve  inches  apart,  perfectly  upright,  and  with 
the  large  end  downwards,  each  egg  being  buried 
at  nearly  an  arm's  depth.  They  are  then  covered 
up  and  left  till  they  are  hatched. 

John  Hunter  found  the  temperature  of  a  sitting 
hen  to  be  104°  of  Fahrenheit's  thermometer,  and 
ascertained  the  heat  to  be  the  same  when  the  ball 
of  the  instrument  was  placed  under  her.  Having 
taken  some  of  the  eggs  from  xmde'r  the  same  hen, 
when  the  chick  was  about  three-parts  formed,  he 
broke  a  hole  in  the  shell,  and  introducing  the  ball 
of  the  thermometer  he  found  that  the  quicksilver 
rose  to  99£°.  In  some  that  were  addled  he  found 


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47 


the  heat  not  so  high  by  two  degrees  ;  so  that,  as 
he  observes,  the  life  in  the  living  egg  assisted  in 
some  degree  to  support  its  own  heat.  We  have 
no  statement  of  the  heat  of  these  procreant  mounds 
at  hatching-time,  but  the  talegalla,  without  any 
aid  but  that  which  comes  from  above,  knows  ex- 
actly the  time  when  they  have  arrived  at  that 
degree  of  temperature  necessary  for  hatching  the 
eggs,  and  which,  probably,  closely  approximates 
to  that  whicli  Hunter  found  to  prevail  in  the  sit- 
ting hen. 

Mr.  Gould  was  credibly  informed,  both  by  na- 
tives and  settlers  living  near  the  haunts  of  these 
birds,  that  it  is  not  unusual  to  obtain  nearly  a 
bushel  of  eggs  at  one  time  from  a  single  heap, 
and  delicious  eating  they  are  said  to  be.  There 
seems  to  be  some  discrepancy  as  to  the  degree  of 
care  manifested  by  the  parents  for  their  oviplanta- 
tion,  some  of  the  natives  stating  that  the  females 
are  constantly  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  heap 
about  hatching-time,  frequently  uncovering  the 
eggs  and  covering  them  up  again,  as  if  for  the 
purpose  of  assisting  the  young  birds  that  may  have 
broken  their  prison,  whilst  others  informed  Mr. 
Gould  that  the  eggs  are  merely  deposited,  and  the 
young  left  to  force  their  way  out  without  assist- 
ance. 

If  the  latter  information  be  correct,  the  question 
arises  as  to  how  the  newly-hatched  birds  are  sus- 
tained ;  and  Mr.  Gould  observes  that  in  all  proba- 
bility as  Nature  has  adopted  this  mode  of  repro- 
duction, she  has  also  gifted  the  young  birds  with 
the  power  of  sustaining  themselves  from  the 
earliest  period  ;  and  he  remarks,  that  the  great 
size  of  the  egg  would  lead  to  this  conclusion,  since 
in  so  comparatively  large  a  space  as  that  included 
in  the  area  of  one  of  these  eggs  it  is  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  the  bird  would  be  much  more  de- 
veloped than  is  usually  found  to  be  the  case  in 
eggs  of  smaller  dimensions.  Mr.  Gould  obtained 
some  confirmation  of  this  opinion  ;  for,  in  search- 
ing for  eggs  in  one  of  the  mounds,  he  discovered 
the  remains  of  a  young  bird,  apparently  just  ex- 
cluded from  the  shell,  but  it  was  clothed  with 
feathers,  not  with  down,  as  is  usually  the  case. 
The  upright  position  of  the  eggs,  he  observes, 
tends  to  strengthen  the  opinion  that  they  are  never 
disturbed  after  they  are  deposited,  for  it  is  well 
known  that  the  eggs  of  birds  which  are  placed 
horizontally  are  frequently  turned  during  incuba- 
tion. This  may  be  seen  by  any  o'ne  who  will 
closely  watch  a  common  sitting  hen.  Mr.  Gould 
was  almost  too  late  for  the  breeding  season,  but 
he  saw  several  of  the  heaps,  both  in  the  interior 
and  at  Illawarra.  They  were  always  in  the  most 
retired  and  shady  glens,  and  on  the  slope  of  a  hill, 
the  part  above  the  nest  being  scratched  clean, 
while  all  below  remained  untouched,  as  if  the 
birds  had  found  it  easier  to  cortvey  the  materials 
down  than  to  throw  them  up.  Mr.  Gould  found 
only  one  perfect  egg,  but  he  saw  the  shells  of 
many  from  which  the  young  had  escaped  in  the 
position  above  described.  At  Illawarra  he  found 
them  rather  deposited  in  the  light  vegetable  mould 


than  among  the  leaves,  which  were  accumulated 
in  a  considerable  heap  above  them. 

The  comparatively  large  size  of  the  eggs  has 
been  alluded  to.  Mr.  Gould  describes  them  as 
perfectly  white,  of  a  long  oval  form,  three  inches 
and  three-quarters  long,  by  two  inches  and  a  half 
in  diameter.  He  saw  a  living  specimen  in  the 
garden  of  the  late  lamented  Mr.  Alexander  M'Leay, 
at  Sydney,  which  had  for  two  successive  years 
collected  an  immense  mass  of  materials,  as  if  it 
had  been  in  its  native  woods.  Wherever  it  was 
allowed  to  range — borders,  lawn,  and  shrubbery — 
presented  an  appearance  that  would  have  satisfied 
the  most  fastidious  lover  of  garden  neatness,  for 
they  looked  as  if  they  had  been  regularly  swept, 
from  the  bird  having  scratched  everything  that  lay 
upon  the  surface  to  add  to  the  mound,  which  was 
about  three  feet  high  and  ten  feet  over.  On 
placing  his  arm  in  it,  Mr.  Gould  found  the  heat  to 
be  about  90°  or  95°  Fahr.  He  saw  the  bird, 
which  was  a  male,  strutting  about  with  proud  and 
majestic  port,  "  sometimes  parading  round  the 
heap,  at  others  perching  on  the  top,  and  displaying 
its  brilHantly-polored  neck  and  wattle  to  the  greatest 
advantage  ;  this  wattle  it  has  the  power  of  expand- 
ing and  contracting  at  will  ;  at  one  moment  it  is 
scarcely  visible,  while  at  another  it  is  extremely 
prominent. 

Here  was  an  instance  of  the  uncontrollable 
power  of  instinct.  This  solitary  bird  persever- 
ingly  continued  to  construct  its  mound  and  keep  it 
ready  for  the  mate,  which  it  was  never  destined  to 
see.  It  was  unfortunately  drowned,  and  then  its 
sex  was  discovered  upon  dissection. 

Leipoa  ocettata,  the  ngow  of  the  aborigines  of  the 
lowland,  the  ngow-oo  of  those  of  the  mountain 
districts  of  Western  Australia,  and  the  native  pheas- 
ant of  the  Western  Australian  colonists,  is  the 
next  form  of  this  anomalous  family  that  claims  our 
notice. 

The  head  and  crest  are  of  a  blackish-brown 
hue,  and  a  dark  ashy  gray  pervades  the  neck  and 
shoulders.  From  the  chin  to  the  breast  the  fore- 
part of  the  neck  is  covered  with  black  lanceolate 
feathers,  with  a  white  stripe  down  the  centre 
of  each.  Three  distinct  bands  of  grayish-white, 
brown,  and  black,  mark  the  back  and  wings,  the 
marks  taking  an  ocellated  form,  especially  on  the 
tips  of  the  secondaries.  The  primaries  are  brown, 
and  have  their  outer  webs  pencilled  with  two  or 
three  zigzag  lines  near  their  tips.  The  whole  of 
the  under  surface  is  light  buff,  and  the  tips  of  the 
flank  feathers  are  barred  with  black.  The  black- 
ish-brown tail  has  a  broad  buff  tip.  The  bill  is 
black,  and  the  feet  are  blackish  brown. 

This  species  lays  its  eggs  in  a  mound  of  sand, 
about  three  feet  in  height,  which  both  sexes  have 
contributed  to  raise,  and  to  form  which  the  natives 
say  that  the  birds  scratch  up  the  sand  all  around 
for  many  yards.  The  inside  of  the  mound  pre- 
sents alternate  layers  of  dried  leaves,  grasses,  &c, ; 
among  which  twelve  eggs,  or  more,  are  deposited, 
and  covered  up  by  the  birds  as  they  are  laid,  till 
the  process  is  complete,  when  the  sandy  mound 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


presents  the  appearance  of  an  ant's-nest.  The 
eggs,  which  are  about  the  size  of  three  of  a  com- 
mon fowl,  white,  slightly  tinged  with  red,  are 
thus  left  to  be  hatched  by  the  heat  of  the  sun's  rays, 
the  vegetable  materials  retaining  sufficient  warmth 
to  keep  them  at  a  proper  temperature  during  the 
night ;  for  the  eggs  are  deposited  in  layers,  and 
no  two  eggs  are  suffered  to  lie  without  an  inter- 
vening division. 

The  hillocks  are  robbed  by  the  natives  two  or 
three  times  in  the  course  of  a  season,  and  they 
conclude  that  the  number  of  eggs  in  a  mound  is 
many  or  few  by  the  quantity  of  feathers  scattered 
about.  If  there  be  abundance  of  feathers  it  is  a  sign 
that  the  hillock  is  full,  and  they  immediately  open 
it  and  take  the  whole  deposit.  The  hen  then  lays 
again,  and  when  her  complement  is  complete  is 
again  robbed,  when  she  will  frequently  lay  a  third 
time.  In  the  mounds  ants  are  often  found  as 
numerous  as  in  an  ant-hill ;  and  sometimes  that  part 
of  the  hillock  which  surrourxls  the  lower  portion 
of  the  eggs  becomes  so  hard  that  a  chisel  is  neces- 
sary to  get  them  out. 

Captain  Gray,  of  the  83d  regiment,  informed 
Mr.  Gould  that  he  had  never  met  witti  these  nest- 
mounds  except  where  the  soil  was  dry  and  sandy, 
and  so  thickly  covered  with  a  dwarf  species  of 
Leptospermum  as  to  render  it  almost  impossible  for 
a  traveller  to  force  his  way  through  if  he  strays 
from  the  native  paths.  In  those  close  scrubiy 
woods  small  open  glades  occur  occasionally,  and 
there  he  found  the  ngow-oo's  nest,  consisting  of  a 
heap  of  sand,  dead  grass  and  boughs,  three  feet  in 
height,  nine  in  diameter,  and  sometimes  larger. 

In  size,  this  beautiful  bird  is  less  than  the  brush 
turkey.  It  keeps  much  on  the  ground,  seldom 
taking  to  a  tree  if  not  closely  pursued.  When 
hard  pressed  it  will  often  run  its  head  into  a  bush 
and  is  there  taken.  The  food,  like  ,that  of  tale- 
galla,  consists  principally  of  seeds  and  berries,  am 
it  utters  a  mournful  note,  very  like  that  of  a 
pigeon,  but  more  inward  in  sound. 

But  the  most  remarkable  of  this  extraordinary 
group  is  the  Ooeregoorga  of  the  aborigines  of  th 
Coburg  Peninsula,  known  to  the  colonists  of  For 
Essington  as  the  jungle-fowl.* 

The  head  and  crest  of  this  great-footed  bird 
deep  cinnamon  brown,  the  hue  of  the  neck  and  al 
the  under  surface  is  dark  gray.  The  back  am 
wings  are  cinnamon  brawn,  and  the  upper  am 
under  tail-coverts  are  dark  chestnut  brown.  Th 
general  color  of  the  irides  is  dark  brown,  but  i: 
some  individuals  light  reddish  brown.  The  red 
dish  brown  bill  is  bordered  with  yellow  edges 
The  legs  and  feet  bright  orange,  and  the  siz 
about  that  of  the  common  fowl. 

When  Mr.  Gilbert,  who  assisted  Mr.  Gould  i 
collecting  the  materials  for  his  grand  work  on  th 
Australian  birds,  arrived  at  Port  Essington,  nu 
merous  great  mounds  of  earth  were  pointed  out  t 
him  by  some  of  the  residents — who,  probably 
belonged  to  the  Society  of  Antiquaries — as  bein 

*  Megapodius  tumulus. 


tumuli  of  the  aborigines.     The  natives  told 
im  not  to  listen  to  these  wise  men,  and  assured 
im,  that  so  far  from  being  the  burying-places  of 
e  human  biped,  they  were  the  nests  in  which  the 
gs  of  the  ooeregoorga  were  hatched.     No  one 
n  the  settlement  believed  a  story  that  contradicted 
11   the  usual   experiences   of  the   incubation   of 
irds,  and   when  the   natives  brought  in  some  of 
ic  large-sized  eggs  in  confirmation  of  their  state- 
ment, they  were  treated  as  lawyers  sometimes  are 
;hen  they  try  to   make  their  case  too  good,  and 
le  doubt  previously  entertained  was  strengthened, 
>ut  Mr.  Gilbert  happened  to  know  something  of 

habits  of  Leipoa,  so  he  took  to  himself  a  know- 
ng  native,  and  about  the  middle  of  November  pre- 
ceded   to    Knocker's    Bay,    a    portion    of  Port 
issington  harbor  very  little  known,  but  where  he 
ad  been  told  a  considerable  number  of  these  birds 
night  be  seen.     He  landed  close  to  a  thicket,  and 
ad  proceeded  but  a  short  distance  from  the  shore 
vhen  he  beheld  a  mound  of  'sand  and  shells,  with 
slight  mixture  of  black  soil,  whose  base  rested 
n  the  sandy  beach,  a  few  feet  above  high-water 
nark.      The    large    yellow-blossomed    Hibiscus 
nveloped  this  conical  tumulus,  which  was  some 
ve  feet  high,  and  twenty  feet  in  circumference  at 
ts  base.     He  turned  to  his  native,  and  asked  what 
t  was. 

"  Oregoorga  rambal."      (Jungle  fowl's  house 
ir  nest.) 

Up  scrambled  Mr.  Gilbert,  and  sure  enough 
bund  a  young  bird  in  a  hole  about  two  feet  deep, 
apparently  but  a  few  days  old,  and  lying  on  a  few 
dry  leaves.  The  native  protested  to  Mr.  Gilbert 
that  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  hunt  for  eggs,  as 
there  were  no  traces  of  the  old  birds  having  been 
ately  there,  so  our  collector  secured  the  nestling, 
placed  it  in  a  good-sized  box  with  a  sufficiency  of 
sand,  and  fed  it  with  bruised  Indian  corn,  which 
it  took  lather  freely  ;  but  it  was  wild  and  un- 
tractable,  and  on  the  third  day  it  contrived  to  es- 
cape from  its  prison.  But  while  it  remained  in 
the  box,  it  was  incessantly  employed  in  scratching 
up  the  sand  into  heaps,  and  although  it  was  not 
larger  than  a  small  quail,  the  vigor  and  rapidity 
with  which  it  threw  the  sand  from  one  end  of  the 
place  of  its  confinement  to  the  other,  was  quite 
surprising.  Poor  Mr.  Gilbert  got  but  little  sleep 
while  it  was  in  his  custody,  for  it  was  so  restless 
at  night;  that  it  kept  him  awake  by  the  noises  it 
made  in  endeavoring  to  gain  its  liberty.  Only 
one  foot  was  employed  in  scratching  up  the  sand, 
and  when  the  bird  had  grasped  a  footful  it  threw 
the  sand  behind  it  with  small  exertion,  and  with- 
out shifting  its  standing  position  on  the  other  leg. 
This  exertion  seemed  to  Mr.  Gilbert  to  proceed 
from  mere  restlessness,  and  a  desire  to  use  its  pow- 
erful feet  without  having  much,  if  any,  connection 
with  feeding ;  for  Mr.  Gilbert  neve*  detected  the 
bird  in  picking  up  any  of  the  Indian  corn  which 
was  mixed  with  the  sand  while  thus  employed. 

Eggs  were  continually  brought  to  Mr.  Gilbert ; 
but  he  had  no  opportunity  of  seeing  them  taken 
from  the  ground  till  the  commencement  of  Feb- 


LEAVES   FROM   THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


49 


ruary,  when,  on  another  visit  to  Knocker's  Bay, 
he  saw  them  exhumed  from  a  depth  of  six  feet,  in 
one  of  the  largest  mounds  which  he  had  seen.  In 
this  mound,  the  holes  ran  down  in  an  oblique  di- 
rection, from  the  centre  of  the  hillock  towards  the 
outer  slope,  so  that,  although  the  eggs  were  six 
feet  deep  from  the  top,  they  were  not  more  than 
two  or  three  from  the  side.  Mr.  Gilbert  was  in- 
formed that  the  birds  lay  only  a  single  egg  in  each 
hole,  and  that,  after  the  egg  is  deposited,  the  earth 
is  immediately  thrown  down  lightly  until  the  hole 
is  filled  up.  Then  the  upper  part  of  the  mound 
is  smoothed  and  rounded  over.  The  top  and  sides 
of  the  mound  betray  the  recent  excavations  of  the 
bird,  for  the  distinct  impressions  of  its  feet  are 
there  left,  and  the  earth  is  so  lightly  thrown  over, 
that  the  direction  of  the  hole  is  easily  ascertained 
by  thrusting  in  a  slender  stick,  the  ease  or  diffi- 
culty of  the  penetration  indicating  the  length  of 
time  that  has  elapsed  since  the  operations  of  the 
bird.  But  to  reach  the  eggs  is  no  easy  task. 
The  natives  dig  them  out  with  their  hands  alone, 
making  only  sufficient  room  to  admit  their  bodies, 
and  to  throw  out  the  earth  between  their  legs. 
By  grubbing  thus  with  their  fingers,  they  are  en- 
abled to  follow  the  direction  of  the  hole  with 
greater  certainty  ;  and  it  will,  sometimes,  at  a 
depth  of  several  feet,  turn  off  sharply  at  right 
angles,  its  direct  course  being  thwarted  by  a  clump 
of  wood,  or  some  other  obstacle.  Persevering  as 
the  savage  is,  his  patience  is  often  sorely  tried. 
Upon  the  occasion  of  extracting  these  two  eggs, 
the  native  dug  down  six  times  successively,  to  a 
depth  Qf  six  or  seven  feet  at  least,  without  finding 
an  egg,  and  came  up  so  exhausted  that  he  refused 
to  try  again.  But  Mr.  Gilbert's  anxiety  to  verify 
the  statement  made  to  him  was  now  completely 
roused  ;  and,  by  the  offer  of  an  additional  reward, 
he  induced  the  grubber  to  try  again.  The  seventh 
trial  was  crowned  with  success  ;  and  Mr.  Gilbert's 
gratification  was  complete,  when  the  native  with 
pride  and  satisfaction  held  up  an  egg,  and  after 
two  or  three  more  attempts  displayed  a  second. 
"  Thus  proving,"  adds  worthy  Mr.  Gilbert,  "  how 
cautious  Europeans  should  be  of  disregarding  the 
narrations  of  these  poor  children  of  nature,  because 
they  happen  to  sound  extraordinary,  or  different 
from  anything  with  which  they  were  previously 
acquainted." 

In  another  mound,  Mr.  Gilbert,  with  the  aid  of 
his  native,  obtained  an  egg  from  the  depth  of 
about  five  feet,  after  excessive  labor.  This  egg 
was  in  a  perpendicular  position,  and  the  holes  in 
this  hillock — which  rose  to  the  height  of  fifteen 
feet,  was  sixty  in  circumference  at  the  base,  and 
like  the  majority  of  those  he  had  seen,  was  so 
enveloped  amid  trees  of  thick  foliage,  as  to  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  the  sun's  rays  penetrating 
to  any  part  of  it — commenced  at  the  outer  edge 
of  the  summit,  and  ran  down  obliquely  to  the  cen- 
tre. This  mound  felt  quite  warm  to  the  hands. 

Now  comes  the  question,  How  do  the  young 
birds  effect  their  escape  from  the  tomb  where  they 
are  literally  buried  alive  ? 

This  sesms  to  be  a  mystery.      Some  natives 


told  Mr.  Gould  that  they  emerged  without  aid ; 
others  declared  that  the  old  birds,  when  the  ful- 
ness of  time  was  come,  scratched  down  to  their 
offspring,  and  set  them  free. 

Mr.  Gilbert  found  this  megapode  confined 
almost  exclusively  to  the  dense  thickets  near  the 
sea-beach  ;  nor  does  it  appear  to  be  met  with  far 
inland,  except  up  the  banks  of  creeks.  The  birds 
go  in  pairs,  or  singly,  feeding  on  the  ground,  on 
roots,  for  the  most  part,  which  the  powerful  claws 
of  their  great  feet  enable  them  to  scratch  up,  and 
on  seeds,  berries,  and  insects,  especially  the  large 
coleopterous  kinds  of  the  latter.  They  are  not 
easily  procured,  and  though  the  whirring  of  their 
wings  as  they  fly  away  is  often  heard  by  those 
who  approach  their  haunts,  the  birds  themselves 
are  seldom  seen.  The  flight  is  heavy,  and  does 
not  seem  capable  of  being  long  sustained.  When 
first  disturbed,  the  jungle-fowl  invariably  makes 
for  a  tree,  and  as  soon  as  it  there  alights,  stretch- 
es out  its  head  and  neck  in  a  straight  line  with 
the  body,  and  remains  motionless  in  that  attitude. 
When  thoroughly  roused  and  alarmed,  it  flies  hor- 
izontally and  laboriously  for  about  a  hundred 
yards,  with  its  legs  hanging  down.  Mr.  Gilbert 
did  not  hear  any  note  or  cry  ;  but  the  natives  de- 
scribed and  imitated  it,  and,  according  to  them,  it 
clucks  much  in  the  fashion  of  a  common  domestic 
fowl,  the  cluck  ending  in  a  peacock-like  scream. 
He  observed  that  the  birds  continued  to  lay  from 
the  end  of  August  to  March,  when  he  left  that 
part  of  the  country,  and,  if  the  natives  are  to  be 
believed,  an  interval  of  only  four  or  five  months, 
including  the  driest  and  hottest  portion  of  the 
year,  occurs  between  their  breeding  seasons.  Mr. 
Gilbert  remarks  that  the  composition  of  the  mound 
seems  to  influence  the  coloring  of  a  thin  epider- 
mis,, with  which  the  eggs  are  invested,  and  which 
readily  chips  off,  showing  the  shell  to  be  white. 
Thus,  eggs  deposited  in  a  black  soil,  are  exter- 
nally of  a  dark  reddish  brown ;  those  placed  in 
sandy  hillocks  near  the  beach  present  a  dirty, 
yellowish-white  hue.  They  differ  in  size  consid- 
erably ;  but  all  are  of  the  same  form,  with  both 
ends  equal.  The  average  size  may  be  taken  at 
three  inches  five  lines  long,  by  two  inches  three 
lines  broad. 

The  geographical  distribution  of  this  singular 
group  of  birds  is  not  confined  to  Australia,  but 
extends  from  the  Philippine  Islands  through  those 
of  the  Indian  Archipelago  to  Australia. 

The  same  Fauna  that  exhibits  the  anomalous 
proceedings  of  the  brush  turkey,  the  native  pheas- 
ant, and  the  megapode,  and  the  rude  congeries  of 
materials  in  which  they  plant  their  eggs,  leaving 
them  there  to  be  hatched  by  vegetable  fermenta- 
tion and  solar  lieat,  as  the  common  snake  con- 
signs her  eggs  to  the  dunghill,  presents  the  most 
curious  examples  of  bird  architecture  hitherto  dis- 
covered. The  history  of  the  elegant  artificers  of 
these  structures  has  more  the  semblance  of  an 
Arabian  tale  than  a  sober  statement  of  fact.  The 
bower-birds*  of  Australia  display  in  the  erection 

*  Geneva,  Ptilonorhynchus  and  Chlamydera. 


50 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A   NATURALIST. 


and  decoration  of  their  edifices  for  assembly  and 
halls  of  amusement,  an  ingenuity  and  taste  that 
place  them  far  beyond  any  others  of  their  race 
with  which  we  are  acquainted. 

Their  constructions  and  collections — for  they 
are  most  ardent,  assiduous,  and  indefatigable  col- 
lectors— had  attracted  the  attention  of  travellers, 
who  were  puzzled  as  to  what  cause  they  could  at- 
tribute the  phenomena  presented  to  them  occa- 
sionally in  their  journeys.  To  Mr.  Gould,  who 
has  dissipated  the  clouds  which  obscured  so  many 
of  the  Australian  animals,  we  are  indebted  for  an 
elucidation  of  this  most  curious  mystery.  He 
watched  the  builders,  obtained  two  of  the  bowers 
complete,  and,  with  his  usual  liberality,  and  not 
without  considerable  difficulty,  placed  one  in  our 
national  museum  and  the  other  in  that  of  Leyden. 

The  bower-like  structures  from  which  the  birds 
take  their  name  first  came  under  the  notice  of  Mr. 
Gould  at  Sydney.  Mr.  Charles  Coxen  had  pre- 
sented an  example  to  the  museum  there  as  the 
work  of  the  satin  bower-bird.  With  his  usual 
energy,  Mr.  Gould  at  once  determined  to  leave  no 
means  untried  for  ascertaining  every  particular  re- 
lating to  this  particular  feature  in  the  economy  of 
the  bird  ;  and  on  visiting  the  cedar  brushes  of  the 
Liverpool  range  he  discovered  several  of  these 
bowers  or  playing-places.  He  found  them  usually 
under  the  shelter  of  an  overhanging  tree  in  the 
most  retired  part  of  the  forest,  differing  considera- 
bly in  size,  some  being  a  third  larger  than  that 
represented  in  Mr.  Gould's  admirable  picture,  (for 
the  illustrations  in  this,  as  well  as  in  many  of  his 
other  works,  are  not  mere  figures — they  are  pic- 
tures,) whilst  others  were  much  smaller.  He 
shall  now  speak  for  himself: — 

The  base  consists  of  an  extensive  and  rather  con- 
vex platform  of  sticks  firmly  interwoven,  on  the 
centre  of  which  the  bower  itself  is  built ;  this,  like 
the  platform  on  which  it  is  placed  and  with  which 
it  is  interwoven,  is  formed  of  sticks  and  twigs,  but 
of  a  more  slender  and  flexible  description,  the  tips 
of  the  twigs  being  so  arranged  as  to  curve  inwards 
and  nearly  meet  at  the  top.  In  the  interior  of  the 
bower  the  materials  are  so  placed  that  the  forks  of 
the  twigs  are  always  presented  outwards,  by  which 
arrangement  not  the  slightest  obstruction  is  offered 
to  the  passage  of  the  birds.  The  interest  of  this 
curious  bovver  is  much  enhanced  by  the  manner  in 
which  it  is  decorated  at  and  near  the  entrance  with 
the  most  gayly-colored  articles  that  can  be  collected, 
such  as  the  blue  tail-feathers  of  the  Rosehill  and 
Pennantian  parrots,  bleached  bones,  the  shells  of 
snails,  &c.  ;  some  of  the  feathers  are  stuck  in  among 
the  twigs,  while  others,  with  the  bones  and  shells, 
are  strewed  about  near  the  entrances.  The  pro- 
pensity of  these  birds  to  pick  up  and  fly  off  with 
any  attractive  object  is  so  well  known  to  the  natives, 
that  they  always  search  the  runs  for  any  small  miss- 
ing article,  as  the  bowl  of  a  pipe,  &c.,  that  may 
'have  been  accidentally  dropped  in  the  brush.  I 
myself  found  at  the  entrance  of  one  of  them  a  small 
neatly-worked  stone  tomahawk,  of  an  inch  and  a 
half  in  length,  together  with  some  slips  of  blue 
cotton  rags,  which  the  birds  had  doubtless  picked 
up  at  a  deserted  encampment  of  the  natives. 

Mr.  Gould  goes  on  to  observe  that  the  purpose 


for  which  these  curious  bowers  are  made  is  not 
yet,  perhaps,  fully  understood.  He  is  certain  that 
they  are  not  used  as  a  nest,  but  as  a  place  of  re- 
sort for  many  individuals  of  both  sexes,  which, 
when  there  assembled,  run  through  and  around  the 
bower  in  a  sportive  and  playful  manner,  and  that 
so  frequently  that  it  is  seldom  entirely  deserted. 

The  proceedings  of  these  birds  (adds  Mr.  Gould) 
have  not  been  sufficiently  watched  to  render  it  cer- 
tain whether  the  runs  are  frequented  throughout 
the  whole  year  or  not ;  but  it  is  highly  probable 
that  they  are  resorted  to  as  a  rendezvous  or  playing- 
ground  at  the  pairing-time,  and  during  the  period 
of  incubation.  It  was  at  this  season,  as  I  judged 
from  the  state  of  the  plumage  and  from  the  internal 
indications  of  those  I  dissected,  that  I  visited  these 
localities  ;  the  bowers  I  found  had  been  recently 
renewed  ;  it  was,  however,  evident,  from  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  portion  of  the  accumulated  mass  of 
sticks,  &c.,  that  the  same  spot  had  been  used  as  a 
place  of  resort  for  many  years.  Mr.  Charles  Coxen 
informed  me,  that,  after  having  destroyed  one  of 
these  bowers  and  secreted  himself,  he  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  seeing  it  partially  reconstructed  ;  the 
birds  engaged  in  this  task,  he  added,  were  females.* 

Such  are  the  bovvers  constructed  by  the  satin 
bower-bird,  (Ptilonorhynchus  holosericeus,  Khul,) 
the  cowry  of  the  aborigines  of  the  coast  of  New 
South  Wales.  The  plumage  of  the  adult  male  is 
deep,  shining,  blue-black,  well  justifying  that  part 
of  its  name  which  likens  it  u>  satin,  except  the 
primary  wing-feathers,  whose  deep  black  more  re- 
sembles velvet,  and  the  wing  coverts,  secondaries, 
and  tail-feathers,  which  are  also  of  a  velvety  black, 
tipped  with  lustrous  blue-black.  The  eyes  are  of 
a  light  caerulean  blue,  with  a  circle  of  red  round 
the  pupil.  The  bill  is  of  a  bluish  horn-color, 
graduating  into  yellow  at  the  tip,  and  the  legs  and 
feet  are  yellowish  white. 

The  head  and  all  the  upper  surface  of  the  fe- 
male are  grayish  green,  the  wings  and  tail  sulphur 
brown.  The  same  tints  prevail  on  the  under  sur- 
face as  on  the  upper,  but  are  much  lighter,  with  a 
tinge  of  yellow,  and  each  feather  of  these  under 
parts  has  a  scale-like  appearance  produced  by  a 
crescent-shaped,  dark-brown  border  at  its  extremity. 
The  irides  are  of  a  deeper  blue  than  those  of  the 
male,  and  there  is  only  an  indication  of  the  red 
ring.  The  bill  is  of  a  dark  horn-color  ;  and  the 
feet  are  of  a  yellowish-white  hue,  tinged  with 
horn-color. 

The  young  males  closely  resemble  the  females, 
with  this  difference,  that  the  hue  of  the  under  sur- 
face is  of  a  more  greenish  yellow,  and  the  crescent- 
shaped  markings  more  numerous.  The  irides  are 
dark  blue,  the  feet  olive  brown,  and  the  bill  black- 
ish olive. 

These  birds,  the  male  being  in  its  transition 
suit,  may  be  seen  at  the  garden  of  the  Zoological 
Society,  where  they  have  a  bower,  and  where  I 
have  had  the  pleasure  of  watching  them.  But  I 
must  break  off  for  the  present,  though  much  more 
remains  to  be  noticed  with  regard  to  this  most  in- 

*  Birds  of  Australia.  By  J.  Gould,  F.  R.  S.,  &c. 
Published  by  the  Author,  20  Broad  Street,  Golden  Square. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


51 


teresting  group,  and  other  temptations  crowd  upon 
my  pen.  The  hippopotamus — thanks  to  his  pow- 
erful highness,  the  Viceroy  of  Egypt,  who  saith  to 
a  man  "Go,  and  hegoeth;"  and  to  good,  zeal- 
ous, indefatigable,  disinterested  Mr.  Murray — is 
delighting  multitudes  of  eager  spectators,  who 
crowd  to  the  Regent's  Park  to  see  this  most 
healthy,  good-humored,  rollicking,  pachydermatous 
baby  of  five  hundred  pounds'  weight,  that  has  come 
from  a  distance  of  five  thousand  miles  to  see  and 
be  seen  ;  for  he  appears  to  be  as  pleased  with  his 


visitors  as  they  are  with  him.  The  thylacines — 
shapes  such  as  one  sees  in  dreams — as  yet  so  shy 
and  wild  that  they  dash  with  horror  from  the  sight 
of  a  human  face,  and  remain  sulkily  in  their  dor- 
mitory, are  arrived  to  add  to  our  notions  of  Aus- 
tralian wonders.  The  Egyptian  snake-charmers 
are  come.  There  are,  however,  other  things  in 
the  world  besides  birds,  beasts,  and  reptiles ;  and 
the  friendly  reader  must  be  no  longer  detained 
from  the  more  interesting  pages  that  here  claim 
his  attention. 


52 


LEAVES    FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK   OF   A    NATURALIST. 


PART  VIII. 


ELEGANT  and  ingenious  as  are  the  structures 
and  collections  of  the  satin  bower-bird,  the  species 
of  the  allied  genus  Chlamydera  display  still  greater 
architectural  abilities,  and  more  extensive,  collec- 
tive, and  decorative  powers. 

The  spotted  bower-bird*  is  an  inhabitant  of  the 
interior.  Its  probable  range,  in  Mr.  Gould's 
opinion,  is  widely  extended  over  the  central  por- 
tions of  the  Australian  continent ;  but  the  only 
parts  in  which  he  observed  it,  or  from  which  he 
procured  specimens,  were  the  districts  immediately 
to  the  north  of  the  colony  of  New  South  Wales. 
During  his  journey  into  the  interior,  he  saw  it  in 
tolerable  abundance  at  Brezi,  on  the  river  Mokai, 
to  the  northward  of  the  Liverpool  plains ;  and  it 
was  also  equally  numerous  in  all  the  low  scrubby 
ranges  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Namoi,  as  well 
as  in  the  open  brushes  that  intersect  the  plains  on 
its  borders.  Mr.  Gould  is  gifted  with  the  eye  of 
an  observer  ;  but,  from  the  extreme  shyness  of  its 
disposition,  it  generally  escapes  the  attention  of 
ordinary  travellers,  and  it  seldom  allows  itself  to 
be  approached  near  enough  for  the  spectator  to 
discern  its  colors.  Its  "  harsh,  grating,  scolding 
note"  betrays  its  haunts  to  the  intruder  ;  but, 
•when  disturbed,  it  seeks  the  tops  of  the  highest 
trees,  and,  generally,  flies  off  to  another  locality. 

Mr.  Gould  obtained  his  specimens  most  readily 
by  watching  at  the  water-holes  where  they  come 
to  drink;  and,  on  one  occasion,  near  the  termina- 
tion of  a  long  drought,  he  was  guided  by  a  native 
to  a  deep  basin  in  a  rock,  where  water,  the  pro- 
duce of  many  antecedent  months,  still  remained. 
Numbers  of  the  spotted  bower-birds,  honeysuck- 
ers  and  parrots,  sought  this  welcome  reservoir, 
which  had  seldom,  if  ever  before,  reflected  a  white 
face.  Mr.  Gould's  presence  was  regarded  with 
suspicion  by  the  winged  frequenters  of  this  attrac- 
tive spot ;  but  while  he  remained  lying  on  the 
ground  perfectly  motionless,  though  close  to  the 
water,  their  wants  overpowered  their  misgivings, 
and  they  would  dash  down  past  him  and  eagerly 
take  their  fill,  although  an  enormous  black  snake 
was  lying  coiled  upon  a  piece  of  wood  near  the 
edge  of  the  pool.  At  this  interesting  post  Mr. 
Gould  remained  for  three  days.  The  spotted 
bower-birds  were  the  most  numerous  of  the  thirsty 
assemblage  there  congregated,  and  the  most  shy  ; 
and  yet  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  frequently  seeing 
six  or  eight  of  them  displaying  their  beautiful 
necks  as  they  were  perched  within  a  few  feet  of 
him.  He  slates  that  the  scanty  supply  of  water 
remaining  in  the  cavity,  must  soon  have  been  ex- 
hausted by  the  thousands  of  birds  that  daily  re- 
sorted to  it,  if  the  rains,  which  had  so  long  been 
suspended,  had  not  descended  in  torrents. 

Mr.  Gould  discovered  several  of  the  bowers  of 
this  species  during  his  journey  to  the  interior ;  the 
finest  of  which,  now  in  the  National  Museum,  he 
.brought  to  England.  He  found  the  situations  of 
these  runs  or  bowers  to  be  much  varied.  Some- 

*  Chlamydera  maculata. — GOULD. 


times  he  discovered  them  on  the  plains  studded 
with  Myalls,  (Acacia  pendula,)  and  sornotimes  in 
the  brushes  with  which  the  lower  hills  were 
clothed.  He  describes  them  as  considerably 
longer,  and  more  avenue-like,  than  those  of  the 
satin  bower-bird,  extending  in  many  instances  to 
three  feet  in  length.  Outwardly  they  were  built 
with  twigs,  and  beautifully  lined  with  tall  grasses, 
so  disposed  that  their  upper  ends  nearly  met. 
The  decorations  were  very  profuse,  consisting  of 
bivalve  shells,  skulls  of  small  animals,  and  other 
bones. 

Evident  and  beautiful  indications  of  design  (con- 
tinues Mr.  Gould)  are  manifest  throughout  the 
whole  of.the  bower  and  decorations  formed  by  this 
species,  particularly  in  the  manner  in  which  the 
stones  are  placed  within  the  bower,  apparently  to 
keep  the  grasses  with  which  it  is  lined  firmly  fixed 
in  their  places ;  these  stones  diverge  from  the 
mouth  of  the  run,  on  each  side,  so  as  to  form  little 
paths,  while  the  immense  collection  of  decorative 
materials,  bones,  shells,  &c.,  are  placed  in  a  heap 
before  the  entrance  of  the  avenue,  this  arrange- 
ment being  the  same  at  both  ends.  In  some  of  the 
larger  bowers,  which  had  evidently  been  resorted 
to  for  many  years,  I  have  seen  nearly  half  a  bushel 
of  bones,  shells,  &c.,  at  each  of  the  entrances.  In 
some  instances,  small  bowers,  composed  almost  en- 
tirely of  grasses,  apparently  the  commencement  of 
a  new  place  of  rendezvous,  were  observable.  I 
frequently  found  these  structures  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  rivers,  from  the  borders  of  which 
they  could  alone  have  procured  the  shells,  and 
small,  round,  pebbly  stones  ;  their  collection  and 
transportation  must,  therefore,  be  a  task  of  great 
labor  and  difficulty.  As  these  birds  feed  almost 
entirely  upon  seeds  and  fruits,  the  shells  and  bones 
cannot  have  been  collected  for  any  other  purpose 
than  ornament ;  besides,  it  is  only  those  which 
have  been  bleached  perfectly  white  in  the  sun,  or 
such  as  have  been  roasted  by  the  natives,  and  by 
this  means  whitened,  that  attract  their  attention. 
I  fully  ascertained  that  these  runs,  like  those  of  the 
satin  bower-bird,  formed  the  rendezvous  of  many 
individuals ;  for,  after  secreting  myself  for  a  short 
space  of  time  near  one  of  them,  I  killed  two  males 
which  I  had  previously  seen  running  through  the 
avenue. 

The  plumage  of.  this  species  is  remarkable.  A 
rich  brown  pervades  the  crown  of  the  head,  the 
ear-coverts  and  the  throat,  each  feather  being  bor- 
dered by  a  narrow  black  line  ;  and,  on  the  crown, 
the  feathers  are  small  and  tipped  with  silver  gray. 
The  back  of  the  neck  is  crossed  by  a  beautiful, 
broad,  light,  rosy  pink  band  of  elongated  feathers, 
so  as  to  form  a  sort  of  occipital  crest.  The 
wings,  tail,  and  upper  surface,  are  deep  brown  ; 
every  feather  of  the  back,  rump,  scapularies,  and 
secondaries,  having  a  large  round  spot  of  full  buff 
at  the  tip.  Primaries  slightly  tipped  with  white. 
All  the  tail-feathers  with  buffy  white  terminations. 
Under  parts  grayish  white.  Flank-feathers  zig- 
zagged, with  faint  transverse  light  brown  lines. 
Bill  and  feet  dusky  brown.  At  the  corner  of  the 
mouth,  the  bare,  thick,  fleshy,  prominent  skin,  is 
of  a  pinky  flesh  color,  and  the  irides  are  dark 
brown. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


53 


The  rosy  frill  adorns  the  adults  of  both  sexes; 
but  the  young  male  and  female  of  the  year  have 
it  not. 

Another  species,  the  great  bower-bird,*  was 
probably  the  architect  of  the  bowers  found  by 
Captain  Grey  during  his  Australian  rambles,  and 
which  interested  him  greatly,  in  consequence  of 
the  doubts  entertained  by  him  whether  they  were 
the  works  of  a  bird  or  of  a  quadruped — the  incli- 
nation of  his  mind  being,  that  their  construction 
was  due  to  the  four-footed  animal.  They  were 
formed  of  dead  grass  and  parts  of  bushes,  sunk  a 
slight  depth  into  two  parallel  furrows,  in  sandy 
soil,  and  were  nicely  arched  above  ;  they  were 
always  full  of  broken  sea-shells,  large  heaps  of 
which  also  protruded  from  the  extremity  of  the 
bower.  In  one  of  these  bowers,  the  most  remote 
from  the  sea  of  those  discovered  by  Captain  Grey, 
was  a  heap  of  the  stones  of  some  fruit  that  evi- 
dently had  been  rolled  therein.  He  never  saw 
any  animal  in  or  near  these  bowers ;  but  the 
abundant  droppings  of  a  small  species  of  kanga- 
roo close  to  them,  induced  him  to  suppose  them 
to  be  the  work  of  some  quadruped. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  race  of  birds,  whose 
ingenuity  is  not  merely  directed  to  the  usual  ends 
of  existence — self-preservation,  and  the  continua- 
tion of  the  species— but  to  the  elegancies  and 
amusements  of  life.  Their  bowers  are  their  ball 
and  assembly  rooms  ;  and  we  are  very  much  mis- 
taken if  they  are  not  like  those  places  of  meeting, 

For  whispering  lovers  made. 

The  male  satin  bower-bird,  in  the  garden  at 
the  Regent's  Park,  is  indefatigable  in  his  assiduity 
towards  the  female  ;  and  his  winning  ways  to  coax 
her  into  the  bower,  conjure  up  the  notion  that  the 
soul  of  some  Damon,  in  the  course  of  its  trans- 
migration, has  found  its  way  into  his  elegant  form. 
He  picks  up  a  brilliant  feather,  flits  about  with  ij 
before  her,  and  when  he  has  caught  her  eye,  adds 
it  to  the  decorations. 

Haste,  my  Nanette,  my  lovely  maid, 
Haste  to  the  bower  thy  swain  has  made. 

No  enchanted  prince  could  act  the  deferential 
lover  with  more  delicate  or  graceful  attention. 
Poor  fellow ;  the  pert,  intruding  sparrows  plague 
him  abominably  ;  and  really  it  becomes  almost  an 
affair  of  police,  that  some  measures  should  be 
adopted  for  their  exclusion.  He  is  subject  to  fits, 
too,  and  suddenly,  without  the  least  apparent 
warning,  falls  senseless,  like  an  epileptic  patient ; 
but  presently  recovers,  and  busies  himself  about 
the  bower.  When  he  has  induced  the  female  to 
enter  it,  he  seems  greatly  pleased ;  alters  the  dis- 
position of  a  feather  or  a  shell,  as  if  hoping  that 
the  change  may  meet  her  approbation  ;  and  looks 
at  her  as  she  sits  coyly  under  the  overarching 
twigs,  and  then  at  the  little  arrangement  which 
he  has  made,  and  then  at  her  again,  till  one  could 
almost  fancy  that  one  hears  him  breathe  a  sigh. 
He  is  still  in  his  transition  dress,  and  has  not  yet 
donned  his  full  Venetian  suit  of  black. 

*  Chlamydera  nucfialis. 


In  their  natural  state,  the  satin  bower-birds  as- 
sociate in  autumn  in  small  parties ;  and  Mr.  Gould 
states  that  they  may  then  often  be  seen  on  the 
ground  near  the  sides  of  rivers,  particularly  where 
the  brush  feathers  the  descending  bank  down  to 
the  water's  edge.  The  male  has  a  loud,  liquid 
call  ;  and  both  sexes  frequently  utter  a  harsh 
guttural  note,  expressive  of  surprise  and  dis- 
pleasure. 

Geffrey  Chaucer,  in  his  argument  to  The  As- 
semblie  of  Foules,  relates  that  "  All  foules  are 
gathered  before  Nature  on  St.  Valentine's  day,  to 
chuse  their  makes.  A  formell  egle  beyng  beloved 
of  three  tercels,  requireth  a  yeeres  respite  to  make 
her  choise  ;  upon  this  triall,  Qui  bien  aime  tard 
oublie—'  He  that  loveth  well  is  slow  to  forget.'  " 
The  female  saiin  bower-bird  in  the  Regent's  Park 
seems  to  have  taken  a  leaf  out  of  the  "  formell 
egle's"  book  ;  for  I  cannot  discover  that  her  hum- 
ble and  most  obsequious  swain  has  been  rewarded 
for  his  attentions,  though  they  have  been  continued 
through  so  many  weary  months ;  but  we  shall 
never  be  able  entirely  to  solve  these  mysteries,  till 
we  become  possessed  of  the  rare  ring  sent  to  the 
King  of  Sarra  by  the  King  of  Arabie,  "by  the 
vertue  whereof"  his  daughter  understood  "the 
language  of  all  foules,"  unless  we  can 

Call  up  him  that  left  untold 

The  story  of  Cambuscan  bold, 

Of  Camball  and  of  Algersife, 

And  who  had  Canace  to  wife, 

That  owned  the  virtuous  ring  and  glass, 

And  of  the  wondrous  horse  of  brass, 

On  which  the  Tartar  king  did  ride. 

Edmund  Spenser,  with  due  reverence  for 
Dan  Chaucer,  (well  of  English  undefiled,) 

has,  indeed,  done  his  best  to  supply  the  defect,* 
and  has  told  us  that 

Cambello's  sister  was  fair  Canacee, 

That  was  the  learnedst  lady  in  her  days, 

Well  seen  in  every  science  that  mote  be, 

And  every_  secret  work  of  nature's  ways, 

In  witty  riddles  and  in  wise  soothsays, 

In  power  of  herbs,  and  tunes  of  beasts  and  birds: 

but  we  learn  from  him  no  more  of  the  ring  than 
"  Dan  Chaucer"  tells  us  : — 

The  vertue  of  this  ring,  if  ye  woll  here, 
Is  this  ;  that  if  she  list  it  for  to  were 
Upon  her  thombe,  or  in  her  purse  it  bere, 
There  is  no  foule  that  fleeth  under  heven 
That  she  ne  shall  understand  his  stevenjt 
And  know  his  meaning  openly  and  plaine, 
And  answer  him  in  his  language  againe  ; 

as  Canace  does  in  her  conversation  with  the  falcon 
in  The  Squier's  Tale.     Nor  is  the  "  vertue"  of 
the    ring    confined    to    bird-intelligence,   for    the 
knight  who  came  on  the  "  steed  of  brasse,"  adds—- 
And, every  grasse  that  groweth  upon  root 
She  shall  well  know  to  whom  it  will  do  boot, 
All  be  his  wounds  never  so  deep  and  wide. 

But  we  must  return  from  these  realms  of  fancy  to 
a  country  hardly  less  wonderful  ;  for  Australia 
presents,  in  the  realities  of  its  quadrupedal  forms, 
a  scene  that  might  well  pass  for  one  of  enchant- 
ment. 
*  Fairy  Queen,  book  iv.,  cant.  2,  et  seq.  t  Sound. 


54 


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To  the  uninitiated,  a  commencement  of  an  ac- 
count in  the  following  manner,  would  look  very 
like  a  narrative  proceeding  from  the  pen  of  the 
renowned  Captain  Lemuel  Gulliver. 

The  country  of  the  marsupiates,  or  purse-bear- 
ers, is  of  enormous  extent,  and  forms  a  fifth  quar- 
ter of  the  globe.  Their  young  are  born  in  an 
embryotic  state,  and  conveyed  to  a  comfortable 
marsupium  or  pouch  belonging  to  the  mother, 
where  there  are  teats,  to  which  these  foetuses  at- 
tach themselves  by  their  mouths.  Here  they 
stick,  like  little  animated  lumps,  till  the  small 
knobs  which  exist  at  the  places  where  the  mem- 
bers Jiight  to  be,  bud  and  shoot  out  into  limbs. 
By  and  bye  these  limbs  become  more  and  more 
perfect,  and  the  extremities  are  completely  formed  ; 
till  gradually  the  development  of  the  creature 
reaches  its  proper  proportions,  and  it  is  able  to 
go  alone.  It  is  right  pleasant  to  behold  these 
curious  little  animals  hopping  or  running  about 
their  parents,  and  on  the  most  distant  approach  of 
danger  flying  for  refuge  to  the  purses  of  their 
mothers,  where  they  disappear  till  it  is  past,  and 
from  whence,  if  they  think  they  may  safely  ven- 
ture, they  peep  out  to  see  whether  the  coast  is 
clear. 

This,  however,  is  an  account  of  the  Marsupia- 
lia,  the  Animalia  crumenata  of  Scaliger,  uncolored 
by  the  slightest  exaggeration. 

New  Holland  is  the  head-quarters  of  these 
anomalous  creatures,  and  there  the  great  type  of 
the  group  is  placed  ;  nor  does  it  extend  far  beyond 
the  main  land  among  the  adjacent  islands.  In 
America  it  is  scantily  represented  by  the  opos- 
sum ;  but  neither  the  colder  parts  of  that  country 
nor  its  southern  extremity,  know  it ;  neither  do 
any  representatives  of  the  family  occur  in  Europe, 
Asia,  or  Africa.  Here,  then,  we  have  two  far- 
distant  regions  presenting  themselves  as  the  two 
points  of  development  of  a  form  which  has  not 
spread  over  other  portions  of  the  earth  ;  and,  in 
truth,  this,  combined  with  the  palaeontological  re- 
searches of  Dr.  Lund -in  Brazil,  and  of  our  own 
Owen,  relative  to  the  quadrupedal  fossil  remains 
of  New  Holland,  is  a  strong  argument  for  those 
who  look  upon  these  countries  as  two  distinct  foci 
of  creation,  and  as  affording  examples,  among 
many  others,  militating  against  the  notion  of  a 
unique  centre  of  origin  of  the  animals  now  in  ex- 
istence. 

These  marsupials  are,  as  far  as  observation  has 
gone,  of  a  low  grade  in  the  scale  of  intelligence, 
and  their  vocal  powers  are  exceedingly  limited. 
A  growl,  or  a  sort  of  hollow  bark,  is  the  nearest 
approach  that  is  made  among  them  to  a  completely 
developed  sound,  and  a  half-hissing,  half-wheezfng, 
guttural  attempt  at  a  cry,  is  the  noise  most  fre- 
quently emitted  by  them  when  under  the  influence 
of  irritation.  I  have  in  vain  looked  for  that  at- 
tachment to  their  keepers,  and  to  those  who  are 
kind  to  them,  which  characterizes  the  more  highly- 
developed  quadrumanes  and  quadrupeds  in  captiv- 
ity •  and  their  manners  seem  to  remind  the  observer 


of  the  reptilian  rather  than  of  the  mammalian 
class.  The  wombat's  loud  serpentine  hiss,  when 
provoked,  cannot  fail  to  raise  this  idea  in  the  mind 
of  any  generalizing  naturalist  who  hears  it ;  and 
as  for  the  kangaroo,  its  larynx  absolutely  wants 
the  necessary  apparatus  for  producing  a  vocalized 
sound,  to  which  the  noise  that  the  animal  emits 
bears  no  resemblance. 

The  brain  in  these  creatures  is  in  accordance 
with  the  stupidity  which  renders  them  so  unlike 
those  mammiferous  quadrupeds  in  which  that 
organ  exhibits  a  more  advanced  state  of  develop- 
ment. The  examination  of  those  marsupials  that 
have  fallen  under  the  notice  of  comparative  anato 
mists,  indicates  the  impossibility  of  their  manifest- 
ing those  qualities  which  have  so  deservedly  en- 
deared the  dog  to  man.  They  have  no  corpus 
callosum  ;  and,  without  being  very  presumptuous, 
that  portion  of  the  brain  may  be  pronounced,  upon 
the  authority  of  those  who  have  not  leaped  to  con- 
clusions, but  have  humbly  and  patiently  drawn 
them  from  a  long  course  of  study  and  experiment, 
to  be  the  principal  seat  of  memory.  This  defect 
at  once  accounts  for  the  stupidity  and  want  of 
attachment  above  alluded  to.  These  marsupials 
seem  to  have  just  as  much  intelligence  as  will  en- 
able them  to  perform  the  animal  functions,  and  no 
more.  One  of  the  Thylacines  in  the  Regent's 
Park,  when  shut  out  of  his  dormitory,  spent  his 
time  in  walking  round  and  round  in  a  narrow  circle, 
without  even  examining  the  extent  or  nature  of  his 
place  of  confinement,  or  expatiating  ;  no,  he  went 
round  and  round,  as  if  he  had  not  sense  to  do  any- 
thing more. 

But  we  must  introduce  this  brute  form  more 
particularly  to  our  friends. 

Thylacinus  cynocephalus,  the  dog-faced  opossum, 
vulgarly  known  as  the  zebra  opossum  and  zebra 
wolf  in  Van  Dieman's  Land,  is  about  the  size  of 
a  young  wolf.  The  short,  smooth,  dusky  brown 
hair,  is  barred  on  the  back,  especially  at  the  lower 
part  and  on  the  rump,  with  some  fifteen  or  sixteen 
black  transverse  stripes,  broadest  on  the  back,  and 
narrowing  as  they  extend  down  the  sides.  Two 
or  more  of  these  zebra-like  marks  descend  down 
the  thighs  considerably.  The  ground  color  on  the 
back  is  of  a  blackish  gray  hue.  The  tail  is  long, 
but  not  large,  nor  does  it  look  well-proportioned 
or  symmetrically  set  on.  It  has  forty-six  teeth  ; 
eight  incisors  in  the  upper  jaw  and  six  in  the 
lower,  two  canines  above  and  two  below,  and 
twenty- eight  molar  teeth,  fourteen  in  the  upper 
jaw  and  the  same  number  in  the  lower.  There 
are  five  toes  on  each  of  the  fore-feet,  and  four  on 
each  of  the  hind-feet. 

Mr.  Harris  has  described  this,  the  largest  of  the 
Australian  carnivorous  animals  in  the  Transactions 
of  the  Linncan  Society.  He  remarks  that  it  utters 
a  short,  guttural  cry,  and  appears  exceedingly 
inactive  and  stupid,  having,  like  the  owl,  an  almost 
constant  motion  with  the  nictitating  membrane  of 
the  eye.  The  animal  described  by  him  was  taken 
in  a  trap  baited  with  kangaroo  flesh,  and  lived 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


55 


only  a  few  hours  after  its  capture  ;  in  its  stomach 
were  found  the  partly-digested  remains  of  a  porcu- 
pine ant-cater.* 

The  native  abode  of  this  curious  animal  is  among 
the  caverns  and  rocks  of  the  deep  and  almost  in- 
penetrable  glens  near  the  highest  mountains  of  Van 
Dieman's  Land. 

I  first  clearly  saw  a  pair  of  these  animals  fairly 
out  in  the  light  on  the  26th  May  last,  in  one  of 
the  dens  appropriated  to  the  carnivorous  animals 
in  the  garden  of  the  Zoological  Society  in  the 
Regent's  Park.  They  had  been  presented  to  the 
Society  by  Mr.  Gunn.  I  had,  on  a  former  day, 
seen  them  imperfectly  by  getting  into  the  outer 
apartment  of  their  den  and  looking  into  their  dor- 
mitory. When  fairly  exposed,  they  presented  to 
my  eyes  the  images  of  the  most  extraordinary  ani- 
mals that  I  had  seen  ;  creatures,  I  repeat,  such  as 
one  has  beheld  in  dreams — uncouth,  loggerheaded, 
oddly  made  up,  as  if  Nature  had  been  trying  her 
"  'prentice  han'  "  at  wolf-making,  and  as  if  they 
belonged  to  a  very  ancient  state  of  things  in  this 
planet,  as  all  the  native  Australian  quadrupeds 
do.  The  clumsy,  ill-defined  forms  of  these  Thy- 
lacines  have  puzzled  men  to  give  them  a  name. 
"  Wolves,"  "hyaenas,"  are  some  of  the  appellations 
applied  to  them  by  the  colonists,  who  saw  a  dog- 
like  or  wolf-like  head  on  a  body  striped  with  marks 
resembling,  in  a  degree,  •  those  of  some  of  the 
hyaenas.  It  is  impossible  for  a  palaeontologist  to 
look  at  them  without  fancying  that  he  sees  some 
fossil  animal  recalled  to  life  ;  and,  indeed,  the  ex- 
tinct zoophagous  marsupial  Thylacotherium  must, 
as  its  name  implies,  have  borne  some  resemblance 
to  the  animals  now  under  consideration.  There 
cannot  have  been  any  very  wide  zoological  interval 
between  the  forms  of  the  Thylacine  and  of  the 
Thylacothere. 

The  Thylacines,  like  all  the  true  Australian 
mammals,  are  strictly  marsupial ;  and  the  female 
rejoices  in  as  good  a  pouch  after  her  kind  as  the 
best-provided  kangaroo  of  them  all. 

And  what  a  beautiful  provision  this  is !  how 
admirably  adapted  to  the  region  in  which  the 
marsupials  live,  and  move,  and  have  their  being ! 
Australia  is  proverbially  wanting  in  rivers,  and 
during  a  considerable  portion  of  the  year  the  sup- 
ply of  water  is  very  precarious.  Most  of  these 
quadrupeds  drink  very  little ;  and  the  mother, 
instead  of  dragging  hev  young  about  wearily,  to 
look,  perhaps  in  vain,  for  water,  has  them  com- 
fortably wrapped  up  in  her  pouch,  and  thrives 
where  a  fox  and  her  cubs  would  miserably  per- 
ish. 

The  size  of  the  foetus  of  the  kangaroo  at  the 
time  of  birth,  together  with  the  mode  of  its 
attachment  to  the  nipple  of  the  mother  and  other 
highly  interesting  particulars,  may  be  collected 
from  the  experiments  of  Mr.  Collie,  Mr.  Morgan, 
and  especially  of  Professor  Owen.  From  these  it 
appears  that  the  young,  as  soon  as  it  is  born,  is 
removed — by  the  mother's  mouth  in  all  probability 


— to  the  pouch,  which  is  held  open  by  the  mother's 
fore-paws,  and  there  held  till  it  attaches  itself  to  a 
nipple. 

Professor  Owen  ascertained  that  the  days  of 
gestation  in  the  kangaroo*  are  twenty-nine.  In 
order  to  accustom  the  female  to  the  examination 
of  the  pouch,  they  were  commenced  at  a  very 
early  period  of  gestation,  and  were  continued,  till 
at  seven  in  the  morning  of  the  5th  October,  1833, 
the  fetus  was  discovered  in  the  pouch  attached  to 
the  left  superior  nipple.  On  the  preceding  day 
at  the  same  hour  a  considerable  quantity  of  the 
moist  brown  secretion  peculiar  to  the  pouch  was 
noticed,  indicating  that  determination  of  the  blood 
to  that  part  had  commenced,  and  at  different  times 
during  that  day  the  female  put  her  head  into  the 
pouch  and  licked  off  the  secretion.  When  ex- 
amined at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  only  per- 
ceptible change  in  the  state  of  the  pouch  was  a 
slight  increase  of  the  secretion  ;  but  none  of  the 
nipples  exhibited  any  appearance  indicating  that 
she  was  so  soon  to  become  a  mother.  Closely 
watched  as  she  was  she  contrived,  however,  to 
elude  observation  at  the  actual  time  of  parturition, 
which  took  place  in  the  night ;  nor  were  there 
any  appearances  on  the  litter  or  about  the  fur  of 
the  animal  indicative  of  the  event. 

The  little  one  resembled  an  earth-worm  in  the 
color  and  semi-transparency  of  its  integument, 
adhered  firmly  to  the  point  of  the  nipple,  breathed 
strongly  but  slowly,  and  moved  its  fore-legs  when 
it  was  disturbed.  Its  little  body  was  bent  upon 
the  abdomen,  its  short  tail  tucked  in  between  its 
hind-legs  ;  and  these  legs,  destined,  if  it  had  lived, 
to  be  so  gigantically  developed,  and  to  execute 
such  enormous  bounds,  were  one  third  shorter  than 
the  fore-legs  ;  but  the  three  divisions  of  the  toes 
were  distinct.  Its  whole  length  from  the  nose  to 
the  end  of  the  tail,  when  stretched  out,  did  not  ex- 
ceed one  inch  and  two  lines. 

The  professor  was  aware  that  the  Hunterian 
dissections,  which  may  be  seen  in  the  preparations 
exhibited  in  the  noble  museum  of  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Surgeons  of  England,  as  well  as  the 
observations  of  Mr.  Morgan  and  Mr.  Collie,  con- 
curred in  disproving  the  theory  of  a  vascular  mode 
of  connection  between  the  mammary  fetus  and  the 
nipple ;  but  as  Geoffrey  St.  Hilaire  had  stated 
that  a  discharge  of  blood  accompanies  marsupial 
birth,  or  the  detachment  of  the  fetus  from  the 
nipple,  Professor  Owen  determined  not  to  neglect 
the  opportunity  thus  offered,  and  on  the  9th  of 
October,  separated  the  infant  creature  from  the 
organ  that  bound  it  to  life. 

The  following  reasons  urged  him  to  this  act. 
First,  it  would  decide  the  nature  of  the  connec- 
tion between  the  fetus  and  the  nipple.  Sec- 
ondly, it  promised  to  afford  the  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  mammary  secretion  at  this  period. 
Thirdly,  it  might  show  whether  so  small  a  fetus 
would  manifest  the  powers  of  a  voluntary  agent  in 
regaining  the  nipple  ;  and,  lastly,  the  actions  of 


*  Echidna  aculeata. 


*  Macropus  major. 


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LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


the  mother  to  effect  the  same  purpose  would  prob- 
ably be  brought  under  notice. 

When  the  foetus,  which  retained  a  firm  hold  of 
the  nipple,  was  detached,  a  small  drop  of  whitish 
fluid,  a  serous  milk,  appeared  on  the  point  of  the 
nipple,  which  had  entered  the  mouth  about  half  a 
line.  This  extremity  was  of  smaller  diameter 
than  the  rest  of  the  organ,  not  being  yet  so  com- 
pressed by  the  contracted  orifice  of  the  mouth  as 
to  form  the  clavate  appearance  which  it  presents 
at  a  later  period.  The  poor  young  one  moved  its 
extremities  vigorously  after  it  was  detached,  but 
made  no  apparent  effort  to  apply  its  legs  to  the 
integument  of  the  mother,  so  as  to  creep  along, 
but  seemed  to  be  perfectly  helpless  with  regard  to 
progressive  motion.  It  was  deposited  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  pouch.  The  mother  was  then  liberated, 
and  carefully  watched  for  an  hour. 

She  immediately  exhibited  symptoms  of  unea- 
siness, stooped  down  and  licked  herself,  and 
scratched  the  outside  of  her  pouch.  At  last,  rest- 
ing on  the  tripod  formed  by  her  hind  legs  and  tail, 
she  grasped  the  sides  of  the  orifice  of  the  pouch 
with  her  forepaws,  and,  drawing  them  asunder  as 
in  the  act  of  opening  a  bag,  she  put  her  head  into 
the  cavity  as  far  as  the  eyes,  and  moved  it  about 
in  different  directions.  She  never  meddled  with 
the  pouch  when  she  was  in  a  recumbent  posture  ; 
but  when  apparently  urged  by  uneasy  sensations, 
she  rose  and  repeated  the  operation  of  drawing 
open  the  bag  and  inserting  her  muzzle,  keeping  it 
there  sometimes  for  half  a  minute.  Professor 
Owen  never  observed  her  put  her  fore-legs  into  the 
pouch  ;  they  were  invariably  used  to  open  it. 
When  she  withdrew  her  head,  she  generally  fin- 
ished by  licking  the  orifice  of  the  pouch  and  swal- 
lowing the  secretion.  After  repeating  the  act 
above  described  some  dozen  times,  she  lay  down 
and  seemed  to  bs  at  ease.  When  she  had  re- 
mained quiet  for  about  half  an  hour,  she  was 
again  examined,  and  the  young  one  was  found, 
not  at  the  bottom  of  the  pouch,  but  within  two 
inches  of  the  nipple,  breathing  strongly  and  mov- 
ing its  extremities  irregularly  as  before.  The 
professor  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  replace 
it  on  the  nipple,  and  the  mother  was  then  released. 
Two  days  afterwards  the  pouch  was  found  empty. 
Every  portion  of  the  litter  was  carefully  searched, 
but  no  traces  of  the  foetus  could  be  found.  It  was, 
therefore,  concluded,  that  the  mother  had  proba- 
bly destroyed  it  in  consequence  of  the  disturbance, 
in  accordance  with  the  morbid  habit  to  which  I 
have  in  another  part  of  these  papers  alluded.  It 
is  but  just,  however,  to  the  professor  to  remark, 
that  he  had  no  reason  for  anticipating  this  fatal 
result ;  for  when  the  Zoological  Society  held  the 
farm  at  Kingston,  the  head  keeper  there  had 
twice  taken  a  mammary  kangaroo  foetus  from  the 
nipple  and  pouch  of  the  mother  when  it  did  not 
exceed  an  inch  in  length,  and  each  time  it  again 
became  attached  to  the  nipple.  It  continued  to 
grow  without  apparently  having  sustained  any  in- 
jury from  the  separation,  until  the  death  of  the 
mother,  when  it  was  nearly  fit  for  leaving  the 


pouch.  The  person  who  procured  Mr.  Collie's 
specimen  told  that  gentleman  that  the  young  one 
did  not  pass  the  whole  of  its  time  with  the  papilla 
in  its  mouth,  but  had  been  remarked  more  than 
once  not  having  hold  of  it.  It  had  even  been 
wholly  removed  from  the  pouch  to  the  person's 
hand,  and  had  always  attached  itself  anew  to  the 
teat.  Mr.  Collie,  with  the  tip  of  his  finger,  gently 
pressed  the  head  of  the  little  one  away  from  the 
teat,  of  which  it  had  hold,  and  continued  pressing 
a  little  more  strongly  for  a  minute  altogether, 
when  the  teat,  that  had  been  stretched  to  more 
than  an  inch,  came  out  of  the  young  one's  mouth, 
and  showed  a  small  circular  enlargement  at  its 
tip,  well  adapting  it  for  being  retained  by  the 
sucker's  mouth,  the  opening  of  which  seemed 
closed  in  on  both  sides,  and  only  sufficiently  open 
in  front  to  admit  the  slender  papilla.  After  this 
Mr.  Collie  placed  the  extremity  of  the  teat  close 
to  the  mouth  of  the  young,  and  held  it  there  for  a 
short  time  without  perceiving  any  decided  effort 
to  get  hold  of  it  anew  ;  when  he  allowed  the 
pouch  to  close  and  put  the  mother  into  her  place 
of  security.  An  hour  afterwards  the  young  one 
was  observed  still  unattached  ;  but  in  about  two 
hours  it  had  hold  of  the  teat  and  was  actively 
sucking.*  Moreover,  Mr.  Morgan  had  detached 
a  mammary  foetus  about  the  size  of  a  Norway  rat, 
and  after  a  separation  of  two  hours  from  the  nip- 
ple it  regained  its  hold,  without  sustaining  any  in- 
jury from  the  interruption. 

But  although  the  pigmy  young  one  has  power 
enough  to  grasp  the  nipple  and  adhere  firmly  to  it 
by  the  muscular  strength  of  its  lips,  it  must  not 
be  supposed  that  it  is  capable  of  drawing  suste- 
nance therefrom  by  its  unaided  efforts.  So  foetal 
a  rudiment  would  have  been  in  a  sad  condition, 
if  it  had  depended  for  its  supply  entirely  on  its 
own  exertions;  but  bounteous  Nature  has  pro- 
vided the  assistance  without  which  it  must  have 
perished.  Geoffroyand  the  lamented  Mr.  Morgan 
have  both  demonstrated  the  action  of  a  muscle  on 
the  mammary  gland,  so  as  to  inject  the  milk  into 
the  mouth  of  the  adherent  suckling. 

Here  again  is  an  instance  of  that  wonderful 
adaptation  of  creative  power,  which  must  strike 
every  one  not  absolutely  petrified. 

But,  it  may  be  objected,  you  can  hardly  assert 
that  the  young  one's  efforts  of  suciion  should  al- 
ways coincide  w;jh  the  injecting  acts  of  the  moth- 
er ;  and  you  must  allow  that  if  at  any  time  there 
should  be  no  such  coincidence,  the  milk  would  be 
injected  into  the  larynx,  and  so  suffocate  the  fcetus. 

Most  true  ;  but  the  same  Power  that  willed  the 
birth  of  the  creature  in  such  an  embryotic  condi- 
tion has  guarded  against  the  possibility  of  this 
fatal  result.  The  epiglottis  and  arytenoid  carti- 
lages are  elongated  and  approximated,  and  the  slit 
of  the  glottis  is  consequently  placed  at  the  apex  of 
a  conical  larynx,  which  projects,  as  in  the  whales, 
into  the  posterior  nostrils,  where  it  is  closely  em- 
braced by  the  muscles  of  the  soft  palate.  Thus  is 

*  Zool.  Journ.,  vol.  r. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


57 


the  air-passage  completely  separated  from  the  fau- 
ces, and  as  the  mother  injects  the  milk  the  divided 
stream  passes,  without  the  possibility  of  its  "  go- 
ing the  wrong  way,"  on  each  side  of  the  larynx 
into  the  oesophagus  and  stomach.* 

It  has  been  remarked,  that  the  conveyance  of 
the  fetus  into  the  pouch  is  probably  effected 
by  the  mouth  of  the  mother.  The  reasons  for 
this  belief  are  well  given  by  Professor  Owen,  who 
observes,  that,  apart  from  the  other  circumstantial 
evidence,  this  mode  of  transmission  is  consistent 
with  analogy,  the  mouth  being  always  employed 
by  the  ordinary  quadrupeds — dogs,  cats,  and 
mice,  for  instance — for  the  purpose  of  removing 
their  helpless  offspring.  The  tender  embryo 
would  be  more  liable  to  injury  from  the  fore-paws  ; 
and  these,  from  the  absence  of  a  thumb,  could  not 
so  securely  effect  the  conveyance  as  the  lips, 
which  can  be  opposed  to  each  other. 

The  advantages  of  such  a  vivarium  as  that  be- 
longifig  to  the  Zoological  Society  of  London  in  the 
Regent's  Park  are  here  strongly  manifested.  Pro- 
fessor Owen  was  enabled  by  his  autopsy  to  correct 
the  error  of  Geoffrey  St.  Hilaire,  (who  had  even 
speculated  on  the  anastomoses  and  distribution  of 
the  continuous  vessels,  in  the  neck  of  the  fcetus  to 
account  for  its  junction  with  the  maternal  nipple,) 
and  to  come  to  what  may  be  deemed  the  safe  con- 
clusion as  to  the  mode  of  the  removal  of  the  new- 
ly-born foetus  to  the  pouch,  where  it  is  probably 
conducted  to  and  held  over  a  nipple  by  the  mouth 
of  the  mother,  while  the  pouch  is  kept  open  by 
her  fore-paws,  till  she  feels  that  her  young  one 
has,  with  its  lips,  laid  hold  of  the  sensitive  ex- 
tremity of  the  organ  from  which  it  is  to  derive  its 
subsistence.! 

But  to  return  to  the  Thylacines. 

They  were  so  very  shy  and  wild,  that  it  was 
some  time  before  they  could  be  turned  into  their 
outer  apartment  while  their  sleeping-place  was 
being  cleaned,  without  actual  danger  to  them- 
selves ;  they  threw  themselves  about  so  recklessly, 
dashing  themselves  in  their  terror  against  the 
•walls  and  bars  of  their  place  of  confinement. 
When  I  saw  them  out  they  had  a  most  wild  and 
scared  appearance,  and  made  haste  to  escape  from 
the  light  of  day  to  the  obscurity  of  their  inner 
den. 

The  porcupine  ant-eater,  whose  remains  Mr. 
Harris  found  in  the  stomach  of  his  Thylacine,  is 
The  hedge-hog  of  the  Sydney  colonists,  and,  to- 
gether with  the  Ornithorhynchus,  belongs  to  that 
other  anomalous  tribe  of  quadrupeds  to  which 
Geoffroy  gave  the  apt  name  of  Monotremes.  In 

*  Geoffrey  first  described  this  perfect  contrivance  ;  but, 
as  Professor  Owen  observes,  John  Hunter  seems  to  have 
foreseen  the  necessity  of  it,  and,  indeed,  as  the  professor 
further  remarks,  there  are  evidences  in  Hunter's  prepara- 
tions in  the  museum  of  the  college,  that  he  had  antici- 
pated most  of  the  anatomical  discoveries  which  have  sub- 
sequently been  made  upon  the  embryo  of  the  kangaroo. 

t  See  Professor  Owen's  admirable  paper  "  On  the  Gen- 
eration of  the  Marsupial  Animals,  with  a  Description  of 
the  Impregnated  Uterus  of  the  Kangaroo."  Phil.  Trans. 
1834. 


these  the  reptilian  character  still  further  prevails 
mingled  with  that  of  birds. 

Though  they  have  no  pouch,  they  possess  the 
marsupial  bones,  which,  however,  play  a  very 
different  part  in  them  from  that  assigned  to  those 
bones  in  the  kangaroo  and  true  Marsupiata. 
They  have  a  clavicular  bone  placed  more  forward 
than  the  normal  clavicle,  reminding  the  observer 
of  the  furciform  bone,  or  merry- thought  in  birds, 
to  which,  indeed,  it  is  analogous ;  and  the  cora- 
coid  bone  reaches  the  breast  bone.  Their  eyes 
are  very  little,  and  their  ears  are  without  any  ex- 
ternal appendage. 

Their  mode  of  re-production  was  for  a  long 
time  considered  doubtful ;  some  holding  that  they 
laid  eggs  like  the  birds  and  reptiles,  and  others 
that  the  young  were  brought  forth  alive.  Those 
who  maintained  the  former  theory  relied  upon 
stories  of  nests,  and  eggs,  and  egg-shells  having 
been  found ;  but  these  stories,  when  subjected  to 
cross-examination,  were  generally  found  to  bear  a 
very  strong  resemblance  to  that  method  of  reason- 
ing which  ascribed  the  existence  of  the  Goodwin 
Sands  to  the  building  of  Tenderden  steeple. 

For  example,  one  sees  an  ornithorhynchus  come 
from  a  bank,  lands  with  his  native,  and  finds  at  the 
spot  from  whence  the  paradoxical  animal  had  re- 
treated a  couple  of  eggs.  The  native  tells  the 
white  man  that  this  is  the  Mallangong's*  nest,  and 
that  those  are  its  eggs.  The  eggs  are  secured,  and 
triumphantly  produced  as  conclusive  evidence  of 
the  oviparous  nature  of  the  animal.  They  prove 
to  be  reticulated  externally,  and  to  those  conver- 
sant with  the  subject  exhibit  all  the  characters  of 
the  eggs  of  a  reptile,  which  may  have  been  there 
deposited  by  one  of  that  class,  and  have  been 
visited  by  the  ornithorhynchus  for  the  purpose  of 
seasoning  its  insect  diet  with  an  omelette  au  nat- 
urel.  How  many  of  these  reptilian  eggs  the 
ornithorhynchus  may  have  swallowed  before  it 
was  disturbed  does  not  appear.  But  we  knovr 
that  the  ornithorhynch  burrows  ;  and  is  it  probable 
that,  contrary  to  all  the  usual  instincts  that  prompt 
animals  to  conceal  their  nests,  eggs,  and  young, 
this  creature  should  expose  its  eggs  openly  on  the 
bank  instead  of  hiding  them  in  its  burrow,  if, 
indeed,  it  lays  eggs  at  all?  We  know,  too,  that 
each  of  these  monotremes  possesses  a  mammary 
gland  ;  and  the  truth,  in  all  probability,. is  that  the 
eggs  of  the  echidna  and  ornithorhynchus  are 
hatched  internally,  and  that  their  young  are 
brought  forth  alive,  as  a  viper  produces  hers. 

Such  are  these  other  extraordinary  forms  of 
this  extraordinary  land.  The  first,  the  hedge-hog 
of  the  colonists — now  become  very  rare  in  the 
colony — a  toothless,  terrestrial,  burrowing  animal, 
living  on  ants,  endowed  with  great  strength,  and 
covered  with  spines.  The  second,  a  heteroclite, 
with  the  fur  of  a  mole,  or,  if  you  will,  of  a 
water  vole,  a  bill  like  a  duck — furnished  with 
what  may  be  termed,  for  want  of  a  better  descrip- 

*  Mallangong  is  the  name  given  to  this  extraordinary 
animal  by  the  natives. 


58 


LEAVES   FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


tion,  an  apology  for  teeth  ;  forming,  however,  an 
apparatus  amply  sufficient  for  the  mastication  of 
its  insect  food — burrowing  in  the  banks  of  rivers, 
and  whose  palmated  feet  enable  it  to  swim  and 
dive,  making  it  perfectly  at  home  in  the  water. 

Like  the  kangaroo*  and  other  Australian  ani- 
mals, these  are  rapidly  disappearing  before  the 
march  of  civilization ;  and  the  noble  native  sav- 
age, naked  but  not  ashamed,  complains  bitterly 
that  the  white  man's  kangaroo,  as  he  terms  the 
sheep  and  oxen  of  the  colonist,  have  destroyed 
his,  and  declares  that  he  ought  to  have  compensa- 
tion. He  has  a  far  better  case  than  many  who 
obtain  it  from  our  best  of  all  possible  parlia- 
ments. 

At  some  future  period  our  readers  may  wish  to 
form  a  more  particular  acquaintance  with  these 
monotremes  ;  but  at  present  we  must  leave  them 
to  write  a  few  words  on  that  observed  of  all  ob- 
servers, the  newly-arrived  hippopotamus. 

26th  May. — This  day  I  have  seen  the  first 
living  hippopotamus  that  ever  gratified  the  eye  in 
this  country  ;  or,  indeed,  I  might  add  in  Europe, 
since  the  time  of  the  later  Roman  emperors.  It 
appears  on  a  coin  of  Marcia  Otacilia  Severa,  the 
wife  of  Philip,  who  was  elected  by  the  senate 
and  people  upon  the  assassination  of  the  third 
Gordian.  There  is  a  figure  of  the  beast  in  one 
of  the  tombs  of  Beni  Hassan,  far  up  the  Nile, 
and  remarkable  for  its  fresco  paintings,  where  the 
upward  curve  of  the  angle  of  the  mouth  is  very 
characteristically  given.f 

Our  specimen  was  safely  lodged  in  its  newly 
built  apartments  last  night.  When  I  first  saw  it 
it  was  in  its  bath — a  spacious  and  deep  tank,  with 
wooden  lining,  and  with  steps  for  the  ease  of  the 
bather  when  going  in  and  out — and  put  me  in 
mind,  as  T  looked  down  on  the  animal's  broad, 
rounded  back,  of  a  submerged  black  portmanteau 
that  had  by  some  fairy  freak  been  endowed  with 
motion.  It  was  in  the  most  perfect  health,  sank 
and  rose  gradually,  playfully  closed  its  mouth — 
the  action  cannot  properly  be  termed  biting— on 
the  woodwork  at  the  side  ;  sank  again,  and  when 
at  the  bottom  walked  leisurely  about  as  if  looking 
iLr  something,  wondering,  perhaps,  why  the  luxu- 
riant water-plants  of  Africa  were  not  growing 
there.  After  disporting  itself  some  time,  it  lei- 
surely walked  out,  and  then  gave  one  the  idea  of  a 
cetacean  mounted  upon  four  short  pillar-like  legs. 
Its  keeper  led  the  way  to  its  sleeping  apartment, 
and  the  attached  animal  followed  him  there  like 
a  dog,  along  the  whole  length  of  the  giraffe- 
house  to  the  place  where  the  ostriches  were  in 
the  winter.  The  dormitory  of  the  hippopotamus 
was  profusely  strewn  with  clean  fresh  straw,  and 
the  animal  having  entered  it,  I  had  an  opportunity 
of  observing  him  closely.  I  gently  tickled  and 
scratched  him  about  the  eyes,  muzzle,  and  ears, 

*  The  frequency  of  these  animals  in  our  parks  and 
menageries  a  few  years  since  must  have  been  observed  by 
many.  Now  we  rarely  see  one. 

t  A  copy  of  this  drawing,  by  Mr.  John  M'Gregor,  is 
given  in  the  Illustrated  London  News,  25th  May,  1350. 


and  the  good-natured  animal  lazily  lay  down  like 
a  dog  or  a  pig  to  enjoy  the  operation.  When  I 
ceased  and  retired,  he  rose  with  playfully  open 
mouth  to  follow  me  ;  and  his  keeper,  Hamet,  who 
was  then  with  him — a  fine  young  man,  with  a 
Nubian  or  Egyptian  cast  of  countenance — was 
obliged  to  shut  the  door  of  his  apartment  to  keep 
him  in,  notwithstanding  his  remonstrating  snort. 

The  first  parts  of  his  organization  that  struck  me 
were  the  eyes  and  the  nostrils.  The  former 
have,  at  first  sight,  a  very  extraordinary  appear- 
ance, and  convey  the  idea  of  enormous  projection 
of  the  eye-ball ;  as  if  such  protrusion  was  the 
result  of  some  injury  or  disorder,  external  or  in- 
ternal. But  no.  Here  is  another  instance  of  the 
most  beautiful  adaptation.  The  muscles  of  the 
eye  must  be  most  powerful,  and  must  be  endowed 
with  great  versatility,  capable  of  protruding  or 
withdrawing  the  eye-ball,  which  can  be  either 
projected  remarkably,  or  sunk  within  the  orbit 
considerably,  so  as  to  adapt  it  for  vision  in  the 
different  media  where  it  is  to  act,  whether  the 
animal  be  on  land,  just  under  the  water,  or  far 
dovm  beneath  its  surface.  It  brought  to  my  mind 
a  similar  adaptation  in  birds,  where  the  bony  ring 
and  muscles  form  a  telescopic  apparatus  in  eagles 
and  other  birds  of  prey. 

The  nostrils,  which  are  so  placed  that  they 
appear  above  the  surface  of  the  water  first  when 
the  animal  rises  from  below,  can  be  closed  like 
those  of  a  seal  when  the  vanimal  descends  into  the 
deep,  and  opened  when  it  comes  up  for  the  pur- 
pose of  taking  in  a  supply  of  air.  But  though  the 
nostrils  can  be  closed  like  those  of  the  seal,  the 
machinery  for  working  them  must  be  more  com- 
plicated than  the  muscles  which  enable  that  animal 
merely  to  close  or  open  those  gates  of  breath  at 
pleasure.  In  the  hippopotamus  the  nostrils, 
which  appeared  to  me  to  be  situated  more  verti- 
cally than  those  of  the  seal,  can  be  mounted  up, 
as  it  were,  by  a  process  indicating  the  presence  of 
an  orbicular  sphincter  with  a  protrusive  power,  so 
that  the  air  can  be  taken  in  with  the  least  possible 
exposure  of  the  head. 

These  two  portions  of  its  animal  machinery  are 
of  the  greatest  consequence  to  the  well-being  and 
safety  of  an  animal  that  spends  so  much  of  its 
time  in  the  water.  The  beautifully  contrived  eye 
is  unlike  that  of  any  mammiferous  quadruped 
known  to  me.  It  approaches,  in  its  power  of 
rolling  round,  when  it  is  in  a  state  of  protrusion, 
to  that  of  the  chameleon,  and,  like  it,  must  com- 
mand a  very  extensive  area.  See  how  admirably 
this  is  fitted  to  the  requirements  of  the  animal. 
If  danger  threatens,  the  hippopotamus  instinctively 
rushes  to  the  river ;  and  while  there  latent,  can 
manage  to  just  lift  his  head  among  the  water- 
plants,  and  roll  his  eye  "  like  the  bull  in  Cox's 
museum,"  but  to  much  better  purpose.  If  all  is 
safe,  and  according  to  his  observation  he  may  turn 
out,  he  can  quit  his  subaqueous  retreat ;  or,  if  all 
be  not  right,  he  can  quietly  sink  again  and  remain 
in  his  cool  and  unapproachable  retreat  at  the 
bottom,  occasionally  rising  and  protruding  his 


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59 


muzzle  only  for  the  necessary  air-supply,  and  then 
down  again.  Thus,  if  the  animal  be  on  its  guard, 
presenting  no  mark  for  a  rifle,  even  if  the  hand 
that  bore  it  could  "  haud  out  "  like  that  of  the 
Master  of  Ravenswood.* 

Professor  Owen,  in  a  most  interesting  account 
lately  published,!  states  that  the  skin  is  almost 
flesh-colored  round  the  eyelids,  which  defend  the 
peculiarly  situated  and  prominent  eyes,  and  that 
there  is  a  single  groove  or  fold  above  the  upper 
eyelid  and  two  curved  grooves  below  the  lower 
one.  At  first  sight,  he  truly  says,  they  seem  de- 
void of  eyelashes  ;  but  on  a  close  inspection  a  few 
very  short  hairs  may  be  seen  on  the  thick  rounded 
margin  of  the  upper  lid.  He  further  observes, 
that  the  protruding  movement  of  the  eyeball  from 
the  prominent  socket  shows  an  unusual  proportion 
of  the  white,  over  which  large  conjunctival  vessels 
converged  to  the  margin  of  the  cornea,  and  that 
the  retraction  of  the  eyeball  is  accompanied  by  a 
protrusion  of  a  large  and  thick  palpebra  nictitans, 
and  by  a  simultaneous  rolling  of  the  ball  obliquely 
downwards,  and  inwards,  or  forwards.  There  is, 
he  adds,  a  caruncle,  or  protuberance,  on  the  mid- 
dle of  the  outer  surface  of  the  nictitating  lid.  The 
color  of  the  iris  he  describes  as  dark  brown,  the 
pupil  as  a  small  transversely  oblong  aperture, 
and  the  eyeball  as  relatively  small  and  remarkable 
for  the  extent  of  the  movements  of  protraction  and 
retraction. 

*  Take  the  evidence  of  one  who  would  have  struck  the 
dollar  from  between  the  finger  and  thumb  of  the  keeper, 
as  cleverly  as  ever  Edgar  could  have  done  the  feat. 

"  Seleka  had  sent  men  down  to  the  river  to  seek. 
sea-cows" — the  name  by  which  the  hippopotami  are 
known  to  the  colonists — "and  they  soon  came  running 
after  me  to  say  that  they  had  found  some.  I  accordingly 
followed  them  to  the  river,  where,  in  a  long,  broad,  and 
deep  bend,  were  four  hippopotami,  two  full-grown  cows, 
a  small  cow,  and  a  calf.  At  the  tail  of  this  pool  was  a 
strong  and  rapid  stream,  which  thundered  along,  in  High- 
land fashion,  over  large  masses  of  dark  rock. 

"On  coming  to  the  shady  bank,  I  could  at  first  see 
only  one  old  cow  and  calf.  When  they  dived  I  ran  into 
the  reeds,  and  as  the  cow  came  up  I  shot  her  in  the  head  ; 
she,  however,  got  away  down  the  river  and  I  lost  her. 
The  other  three  took  away  up  the  river,  and  became  very 
shy,  remaining  under  the  water  for  five  minutes  at  a  time, 
and  then  only  popping  their  heads  up  for  a  few  seconds. 
I  accordingly  remained  quiet  behind  the  reeds,  in  hope 
of  their  dismissing  their  alarms.  Presently  the  two 
smaller  ones  seemed  to  be  no  longer  alarmed,  popping  up 
their  entire  heads,  and  remaining  above  water  for  a  minute 
at  a  time  ;  but  the  third,  which  was  by  far  the  largest,  and 
which  I  thought  must  be  a  bull,  continued  extremely  shy, 
remaining  under  the  water  for  ten  minutes  at  a  time,  and 
then  just  showing  her  face  for  a  second,  making  a  blow- 
ing like  a  whale,  and  returning  to  the  bottom.  I  stood 
there  with  rifle  at  my  shoulder,  and  my  eye  on  the  sight, 
until  I  was  quite  tired.  /  thought  I  should  never  get  a 
chance  at  her,  and  had  just  resolved  to  fire  at  one  of  the 
smaller  ones,  when  she  shoved  up  half  her  head  and 
looked  about  her.  I  made  a  correct  shot ;  the  ball 
cracked  loudly  below  her  ear,  and .  the  huge  body  of  the 
sea-cow  came  floundering  to  the  top.  I  was  enchanted  ; 
she  could  not  escape.  Though  not  dead,  she  had  lost  her 
senses,  and  continued  swimming  round  and  round,  some- 
times beneath  and  sometimes  at  the  surface  of  the  water, 
creating  a  fearful  commotion."  The  victim  was  after- 
wards secured,  and  "  her  flesh  proved  most  excellent." — 
Five  years  of  a  Hunter's  Life  in  the  Far  Interior  of 
South  Africa,  &c.  By  Roualevn  Gordon  Gumming, 
Esq.,  of  Altyre.  2  vols.  8vo.  London  :  John  Murray, 
Albemarle  street.  Every  page  of  the  book  of  this 
mighty  hunter  teems  with  moving  incidents. 

T  In  the  Annals  and  Magazine  of  Natural  History  for 
June,  1850. 


The  nostrils,  (continues  the  professor,)  situated 
on  prominences  which  the  animal  has  the  power 
of  raising,  on  the  upper  part  of  the  broad  and  mas- 
sive muzzle,  are  short,  oblique  slits,  guarded  by 
two  valves,  which  can  be  opened  and  closed  spon- 
taneously like  the  eyelids.  The  movements  of  these 
apertures  are  most  conspicuous  when  the  beast  is 
in  his  favorite  element.  The  wide  mouth  is  chiefly 
remarkable  for  the  upward  curve  of  its  angles 
towards  the  eyes,  which  gives  a  quaintly  comic 
expression  to  the  massive  countenance.  The  short 
and  small  milk-tusks  project  a  little,  and  the  minute 
deciduous  incisors  appear  to  be  sunk  in  grooves  or 
pits  of  the  thick  gums  ;  but  the  animal  would  not 
permit  any  close  examination  of  his  teeth ;  with- 
drawing his  head  from  the  attempt,  and  then 
threatening  to  bite.  The  muzzle  is  beset  with 
short  bristles,  projecting  at  pretty  regular  dis- 
tances ;  several  of  them  appearing  to  be  split  into 
tufts  or  pencils  of  short  hairs.  Extremely  fine  and 
short  hairs  are  scattered  all  over  the  back  and 
sides  ;  which  are  not  very  obvious,  except  upon  a 
close  inspection.  The  tail  is  short,  rather  flattened, 
and  gradually  tapering  to  an  obtuse  point. 

The  animal,  when  just  out  of  the  water,  appeared 
to  me  to  be  of  a  bluish  black  color  above — except 
the  ears,  which  were  flesh  color,  and  which  it 
moved  in  a  vivacious  manner — and  of  a  ruddy 
flesh  color  below.  There  was  a  scar  on  the  lei't 
side. 

The  rictus  of  the  mouth  was  very  grotesque, 
and  made  a  sharp  angle  upward  when  the  creature 
gaped.  The  skin  was  dotted  at  short  intervals 
with  the  apertures  of  the  muciparous  glands  exu- 
ding the  liquor  for  lubricating  the  hide.  Though, 
at  first  sight,  the  hide  looks  hairless,  it  has,  now, 
a  short  coat  of  minute  hair,  as  fine  as  floss  silk, 
or  more  like  the  down  upon  the  lip  of  a  youth,  or 
of  a  very  young  man.  When  it  was  at  the  bottom 
of  the  water  I  thought  the  animal  looked  more 
blue,  or  somewhat  lighter,  and  the  spots  denoting 
the  presence  of  the  muco-sebaceous  pores  were 
very  conspicuous. 

The  amphibious  character  of  the  animal's  life 
induces  us  to  look  for  some  machinery  which  ena- 
bles it  to  remain  below  the  surface  of  the  water. 
The  venous  reservoirs  of  the  seals,  and  the  arterial 
plexiform  receptacles  of  the  whales,  will  instantly 
occur  to  the  physiologist.  The  latter  are  most 
complex  and  ample,  as  might  be  expected  of 
organs  fitted  to  secure  a  supply  of  aerated  blood  to 
the  brain,  derived  from  a  heart  that  sends  out 
some  ten  or  fifteen  gallons  of  blood  at  every  stroke, 
through  a  tube  of  a  foot  in  diameter,  with  immense 
velocity.  One  hour  and  ten  minutes  ordinarily 
elapse  from  the  time  of  a  whale's  descent  below 
the  surface  to  that  of  his  rising  again  to  breathe, 
and  Leviathan  has  been  known  to  remain  under 
for  an  hour  and  twenty  minutes.  It  has  been 
calculated  that  about  a  seventh  of  his  time  is  con- 
sumed in  respiration.  The  seals  in  their  natural 
state  have  been  known  to  remain  under  water  for 
periods  varying  from  a  quarter  of  an  hour  to  five- 
and-twenty  minutes  ;  but,  it  has  been  observed, 
that  a  seal  in  confinement  has  remained  asleep 
with  its  head  under  water  for  an  hour  at  a  time. 
The  period  during  which  a  hippopotamus  can 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


remain  submersed  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
accurately  defined ;  but  as  the  animal  walks  lei- 
surely about  at  the  bottom  of  a  river,  from  five  to 
ten  minutes  may  probably  be  spent  by  it  when 
disposed  to  remain  so  long  without  coming  up.* 

Sparrmann  and  Mr.  Gumming  are  conspicuous 
among  those  who  have  recorded  the  habits  of  the 
hippopotamus  in  a  state  of  nature.  The  latter,  in 
his  wild  and  wonderful  book,  most  graphically 
describes  them. 

Look  on  this  scene  : — 

When  the  sun  went  down,  the  sea-cows  com- 
menced a  march  up  the  river.  They  passed  along 
opposite  to  my  camp,  making  the  most  extraordi- 
nary sounds — blowing,  snorting  and  roaring,  some- 
times crashing  through  the  reeds,  and  sometimes 
swimming  gently,  and  splashing  and  sporting 
through  the  water.  There  being  a  little  moonlight, 
1  went  down  with  my  man  Carey,  and  sat  some- 
time on  the  river's  bank  contemplating  these  won- 
derful monsters  of  the  river.  It  was  a  truly  grand 
and  very  extraordinary  scene  ;  the  opposite  bank 
of  the  stream  was  clad  with  trees  of  gigantic  size 
and  great  beauty,  which  added  greatly  to  the  in- 
terest of  the  picture. — Vol.  ii.,  p.  167. 

And  again,  at  p.  171 : — 

At  every  turn  there  occurred  deep,  still  pools, 
with  occasional  sandy  islands  densely  clad  with 
lofty  reeds,  and  with  banks  covered  with  reeds  to  a 
breadth  of  thirty  yards.  Above  and  beyond  these 
reeds,  stood  trees  of  immense  age  and  gigantic  size, 
beneath  which  grew  a  long  and  very  rank  descrip- 
tion of  grass,  on  which  the  sea-cow  delights  to  pas- 
ture. I  soon  found  fresh  spoor,f  and  after  holding 
on  for  several  miles,  just  as  the  sun  was  going 
down,  and  as  I  entered  a  dense  reed  cover,  I  came 
upon  the  fresh  lairs  of  four  hippopotami.  They 
had  been  lying  sleeping  on  the  margin  of  the  river, 
and,  on  hearing  me  come  crackling  through  the 
reeds,  had  plunged  into  deep  water.  I  at  once  as- 
certained that  they  were  newly  started,  for  the 
froth  aod  bubbles  were  still  on  the  spot  where  they 
had  plunged  in.  Next  moment  I  heard  them  blow- 
ing a  little  way  down  the  river.  I  then  headed 
them,  and  with  considerable  difficulty,  owing  to  the 
cover  and  the  reeds,  I  at  length  came  right  down 
above  where  they  were  standing.  It  was  a  broad 
part  of  the  river,  with  a  sandy  bottom,  and  the 
water  came  halfway  up  their  sides.  There  were 
four  of  them,  three  cows  and  an  old  bull ;  they 
stood  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  and,  though 
alarmed,  did  not  appear  aware  of  the  extent  of  the 
impending  danger. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  this  painter  with  a  pen, 
to  omit  the  following  grand  picture,  or  to  present 
it  in  any  other  than  the  vivid  form  which  it  takes 
under  his  hand  : — 

We  had  proceeded  about  two  miles,  when  we 
came  upon  some  most  thoroughly-beaten,  old-estab- 
lished hippopotamus  paths,  and  presently,  in  a 
broad,  long,  deep,  and  shaded  pool  of  the  river ,J 
we  heard  the  sea-cows  bellowing.  There  I  beheld 
one  of  the  most  wondrous  and  interesting  sights 

*  It  is  probably  reserved  for  Professor  Owen  to  detect 
and  describe  the  natural  apparatus  which  enables  the  hip- 
popotamus to  remain  underwater;  but  we  hope  it  will 
be  a  long  time  before  he  will  have  it  in  his  power  to  solve 
the  problem. 

t  Tracks.    *  The  Limpopo. 


that  a  sportsman  can  be  blest  with.  I  at  once  knew 
that  there  must  be  an  immense  herd  of  them,  for 
the  voices  came  from  different  parts  of  the  pool ; 
so,  creeping  in  through  the  bushes  to  obtain  an  in- 
spection, a  large  sandy  island  appeared  at  the  neck 
of  the  pool,  on  which  stood  several  large  shady 
trees. 

The  neck  of  the  pool  was  very  wide  and  shallow, 
with  rocks  and  large  stones  ;  below  it  was  deep 
and  still.  On  a  sandy  promontory  of  this  island, 
stood  about  thirty  cows  and  calves,  whilst  in  the 
pool  opposite,  and  a  little  below  them,  stood  about 
twenty  more  sea-cows,  with  their  heads  and  backs 
above  water.  About  fifty  yards  further  down  the 
river  again,  showing  out  their  heads,  were  eight 
or  ten  immense  fellows,  which  I  think  were  all 
bulls  ;  and  about  one  hundred  yards  below  these, 
in  the  middle  of  the  stream,  stood  another  herd  of 
about  eight  or  ten  cows  with  calves,  and  two  huge 
bulls.  The  sea-cows  lay  close  together  like  pigs  ; 
a  favorite  position  was  to  rest  their  heads  on  their 
comrades'  sterns  and  sides.  The  herds  were  at- 
tended by  an  immense  number  of  the  invariable 
rhinoceros  birds,  which,  on  observing  me,  did  their 
best  to  spread  alarm  through  the  hippopotami.  1 
was  resolved  to  select,  if  possible,  a  first-rate  old 
bull  out  of  this  vast  herd,  and  I  accordingly  de- 
layed firing  for  nearly  two  hours,  continually  run- 
ning up  and  down  behind  the  thick  thorny  cover, 
and  attentively  studying  the  heads.  At  length  1 
determined  to  go  close  in,  and  select  the  best  head 
out  of  the  eight  or  ten  bulls  which  lay  below  the 
cows.  I  accordingly  left  the  cover,  and  walked 
slowly  forward  in  full  view  of  the  whole  herd,  to 
the  water's  edge,  where  I  lay  down  on  my  belly, 
and  studied  the  heads  of  these  bulls.  The  cows, 
on  seeing  me,  splashed  into  the  water,  and  kept  a 
continual  snorting  and  blowing  till  night  set  in. — 
P.  194. 

Upon  another  occasion  (p.  218)  Mr.  Gumming 
fell  in  with  a  herd  of  about  thirty  hippopotami  • 
they  lay  upon  some  rocks  in  the  middle  of  a  very 
long  and  broad  pool ;  and,  again,  with  at  least 
thirty  lying  upon  the  rocks  in  the  middle  of  e 
river.  He  describes  the  noise  made  by  the  hip- 
popotami as  similar  to  that  of  the  musical  instru- 
ment called  a  serpent.  The  following  truculent 
trap  will  be  as  new  to  most  of  my  readers  as  it  is 
to  me  : — 

On  the  20th  (July)  I  again  rode  down  the  river 
to  the  pool,  and  found  a  herd  of  sea-cows  still  there  ; 

I  remained  with  them  till  sun-down,  and  bagged 
two  very  first-rate  old  sea-cows,  which  were  forth- 
:oming  next  day.  This  day  I  detected  a  most  dan- 
gerous trap>  constructed  by  the  Bakalahari  for  slay- 
ing sea-cows.  It  consisted  of  a  sharp  little  assagai, 
or  spike,  most  thoroughly  poisoned,  and  stuck 
irmly  into  the  end  of  a  heavy  block  of  thorn  wood, 
about  four  feet  long,  and  five  inches  in  diameter. 
This  formidable  affiiir  was  suspended  over  the  cen- 
tre of  a  sea-cow  path,  at  a  height  of  about  thirty 
feet  from  the  ground,  by  a  bark  cord,  which  passed 
over  a  high  branch  of  a  tree,  and  thence  to  a  peg 
on  one  side  of  the  path  beneath,  leading  across  the 
path  to  a  peg  on  the  other  side,  where  it  was  fas- 
;ened.  To  the. suspending  cord  were  two  triggers, 
so  constructed,  that  when  the  sea-cow  struck 
against  the  cord  which  led  across  the  path,  the 
heavy  block  above  was  set  at  liberty,  which  in- 
stantly dropped  with  immense  force  with  its  poi- 


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61 


sonous  dart,  inflicting  a  sure  and  mortal  wound. 
The  bones  and  old  teeth  of  sea-cows,  which  lay 
rotting  along  the  bank  of  the  river  here,  evinced 
the  success  of  this  dangerous  invention. — P.  197. 

But  we  must  unwillingly  leave  this  fascinating 
journal,  penned  amid  the  wildest,  grandest,  and 
most  stirring  scenes  that  ever  blessed  or  shocked 
a  wild  hunter's  vision,  to  return  to  the  private 
history  of  our  obese,  tame,  but  most  amusing 
baby.  Its  capture,  in  fulfilment  of  the  nod  of  the 
friendly  autocrat  who  presented  it,  was  effected  at 
the  commencement  of  August,  in  the  bygone  year, 
up  the  Nile,  nearly  two  thousand  miles  from  Cairo, 
when  its  bulk  was  about  that  of  a  newly-dropped 
calf,  but  its  proportions  were  much  stouter,  and 
its  height  much  lower.  Its  unfortunate  mother 
was  mortally  wounded,  and  her  attempt  to  return 
towards  some  bushes  growing  thickly  on  the  river's 
bank,  instead  of  taking  as  usual  to  the  water,  at- 
tracted the  notice  of  the  hunters,  who  found  the 
calf  there  among  the  rank  grass.  It  slipped 
through  their  fingers,  however,  and  instantly  made 
for  the  river,  which  it  would  have  gained,  if  one 
of  the  party  had  not  struck  the  boathook  into  its 
flank,  gaffing  it  as  an  angler  would  a  large  fish. 
The  mark  of  this  wound  it  still  bears,  as  above- 
mentioned. 

It  soon  became  much  attached  to  those  who  had 
the  care  of  it,  treating  them  as  standing  in  loco 
parentis,  and  looking  to  them  for  the  supply  of  its 
wants.  On  its  passage  in  the  Ripon  steam-ship, 
whence  it  was  landed  at  Southampton  on  the 
morning  of  the  25th  of  May,  its  keeper's  hammock 
was  slung  over  its  berth,  as  I  was  told.  The 
poor  man  must  have  had  but  a  disturbed  time  of 
it,  for  his  fond  charge  could  not  bear  his  absence 
without  showing  anxiety  bordering  on  distress, 
and  at  night,  as  I  was  informed,  would  knock  up, 
ever  and  anon,  with  his  chowder  head,  as  Jack 
would  call  it,  at  the  overhanging  hammock,  to 
ascertain  whether  his  sable  friend  was  there. 

The  strong  attachment  of  the  animal  to  its  keep- 
er, (writes  Professor  Owen,  in  the  narrative  to 
which  we  have  already  referred,)  removed  every 
difficulty  in  its  various  transfers  from  ship  to  train, 
and  from  wagon  to  its  actual  abode.  On  arriving 
at  the  gardens,  the  Arab  who  had  the  charge  of  it 
walked  first  out  of  the  transport  van,  with  a  bag 
of  dates  over  his  shoulder,  and  the  beast  trotted 
after  him,  now  and  then  lifting  up  its  huge,  gro- 
tesque muzzle,  and  sniffing  at  its  favorite  dainties, 
with  which  it  was  duly  rewarded  on  entering  its 
apartment.  When  I  saw  the  hippopotamus  the 
next  morning,  it  was  lying  on  its  side  in  the  straw, 
with  its  head  resting  against  the  chair  on  which  its 
swarthy  attendant  sat ;  it  now  and  then  uttered  a 
soft  complacent  grunt,  and  lazily  opening  its  thick, 
smooth  eyelids,  leered  at  its  keeper. 

After  lying  quietly  about  an  hour,  now  and  then 
raising  its  head  and  swiveling  its  eyeballs  towards 
the  keeper,  or  playfully  opening  its  huge  mouth 
and  threatening  to  bite  the  leg  of  the  chair  on 
which  its  keeper  sat,  the  hippopotamus  rose  and 
walked  slowly  about  its  room,  and  then  uttered  a 
loud  and  short  harsh  note,  four  or  five  times  in 
quick  succession,  reminding  one  of  the  snort  of  a 
horse,  and  ending  with  an  explosive  sound  like  a 


bark.  The  keeper  understood  the  language,  and 
told  us  that  the  animal  was  expressing  its  desire  to 
return  to  its  bath.  The  beast  at  this  time  was  in 
one  of  the  compartments  of  the  wing  of  the  giraffe 
house,  on  the  opposite  side  to  that  in  which  its 
bath  is  prepared.  It  carries  its  head  rather  de- 
pressed, and  reminded  me  most  of  a  huge  prize 
hog,  but  with  a  breadth  of  muzzle  and  other  feat- 
ures peculiarly  its  own.  The  keeper  opened  the 
door  leading  into  the  giraffe's  paddock,  and  walked 
through  that  to  the  new  wing  containing  the  bath, 
the  hippopotamus  following  like  a  dog  close  to  his 
heels.  On  arriving  at  the  bath-room,  the  animal 
descended  with  some  deliberation  the  flight  of  low 
steps  leading  into  the  water,  stooped  and  drank  a 
little,  dipped  his  head  under,  and  then  plunged  for- 
wards. It  was  no  sooner  in  its  favorite  element 
than  its  whole  aspect  changed,  and  it  seemed  in- 
spired with  new  life  and  activity ;  sinking  down  to 
the  bottom,  and  moving  about  submerged  for 
awhile,  it  would  suddenly  rise  with  a  bound  almost 
bodily  out  of  the  water,  and  splashing  back,  com- 
menced swimming  and  plunging  about  with  a  ceta- 
ceous or  porpoise-like  rolling  from  side  to  side, 
taking  in  mouthsfull  of  water  and  spurting  them 
out  again,  raising  every  now  and  then  its  huge 
grotesque  head,  and  biting  the  woodwork  at  the 
margin  of  the  bath.  The  broad,  round  back  of  the 
animal  being  now  chiefly  in  view,  it  looks  a  much 
larger  animal  than  when  out  of  the  water.  After 
half-an-hour  spent  in  this  amusement,  it  quitted  the 
water  at  the  call  of  its  keeper,  and  followed  him 
back  to  the  sleeping-room,  which  is  well  bedded 
with  straw,  and  where  a  stuffed  sack  is  provided 
for  its  pillow,  of  which  the  animal,  having  a  very 
short  neck,  thicker  than  the  head,  duly  avails  itself 
when  it  sleeps. 

I  was  told  that  when  it  was  at  Cairo  it  ate  a 
good  deal  of  clay  ;  and  the  Arabs,  it  seems,  have 
expressed  a  desire  that  it  should  have  some  here. 
I  believe  that  it  is  perfectly  safe  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Mitchell;  and  if  it  should  be  thought  fit  to 
indulge  it  with  clay,  those  whom  its  odd  ways 
delight  may  rest  secure  that  Mr.  Mitchell  will  not' 
let  Hippo  be  bricked  up  with  our  London  clay; 
but  if  clay  must  be  given,  will  prescribe  some  of 
the  mud  of  the  Colne  or  Thames,  wherein  the 
water-lilies  grow  so  luxuriantly.  In  the  stomachs 
of  the  young  hippopotamus  opened  by  Sparrman, 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  "dirt,"  with  curd  and' 
leaves  quite  fresh  ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 
this  V  dirt"  may  be  required  by  the  animal  to  cor- 
rect the  acidity  arising  from  its  diet,  as  calves  lick 
chalk.  In  scooping  up  the  water-plants  from  the 
bottoms  of  rivers  and  their  banks  with  the  enor- 
mous dental  apparatus  of  the  lower  jaw,  a  consid- 
erable quantity  of  the  soil  must  be  taken  up,  and 
that  some  of  it  finds  its  way  to  the  stomach  is  ev- 
ident from  Sparrman's  evidence. 

Two  of  his  attendants,  Jabar  Abou  Haijab  and 
Mohammed  Abou  Merwan — these,  as  far  as  I  can- 
make  them  out,  are  their  names — are  snake- 
charmers,  of  whom  and  of  whose  performance  I 
shall  have  something  to  say  hereafter.  The  for- 
mer, an  old  man,  was  employed  by  the  French 
savans  in  Bonaparte's  Egyptian  expedition,  and 
collected  reptiles  for  Geoffrey  ;  the  latter  Arab, 
who  appears  to  be  some  fifteen  years  of  age,  and 


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LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


is  the  principal  performer  with  the  serpents,  is,  I 
have  heard,  his  nephew,  and  is  the  playfellow  of 
the  hippopotamus.  When  I  saw  him,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  my  first  view  of  his  playmate,  he  had  a 
gold  ear-ring  and  a  gold  finger-ring,  and  was  clad 
in  fantastic  costume,  with  a  feather  in  his  head- 
gear, and  in  an  old  pair  of  Wellington  boots,  long 
since  unacquainted  with  blacking,  and  a  world  too 
wide  for  his  bare  shanks.  Of  these  he  seemed 
more  proud  than  of  all  the  rest  of  his  apparel  put 
together,  but  they  so  galled  his  naked  feet  that 
they  soon  brought  him  to  poultices,  and  he  has 
since  taken  to  stockings  and  slippers.  A  complaint 
has,  I  hear,  been  brought  against  him  for  teazing 
the  monkeys,  which  he  excites  into  a  frantic  state. 
Sheetan* — the  name  in  which  he  rejoices  among 
his  familiars — pleaded  guilty,  and  begged  hard 
that  one  of  the  monkeys  might  be  assigned  to  him 
for  education — the  height  of  his  ambition  at  pres- 
ent being  to  teach  his  cheiroped  scholar  to  charm 
serpents. 

His  games  of  romps  with  the  hippopotamus  are 
'first-rate.  After  a  little  provocation  by  eccentric 
antics,  which  would  have  done  credit  to  Flibberti- 
gibbet himself,  he  flies,  and  his  obese  four-footed 
frolicsome  friend  shuffles  after  him  with  his  mouth 
open — and  such  a  mouth! — in  all  the  beauty  of 
ugliness.  This  playful  running  after  its  friends 
open-mouthed  may  be  interpreted  in  two  ways : 
first,  as  it  wsuld  act  with  its  mother,  half  in  play, 
half  as  a  hint  for  nourishment ;  and  secondly,  as 
a  lamb,  a  goat,  or  a  calf  butts,  before  their  horns 
.have  budded,  betraying  a  consciousness  on  the  part 
of  our  gambolling  pachyderm  of  the  locality  where 
the  terrible  offensive  armour  is  to  be  with  which 
hereafter  he  may  bite  with  a  vengeance. 

Professor  Owen  states  that  we  may  reckon  this 
young  animal  to  be  tea  months  old,  and  that  it  is 
now  seven  feet  long,  and  six  and  a  half  feet  in 
girth  at  the  middle  of  the  barrel-shaped  trunk, 
which  is  supported,  dear  of  the  ground,  on  very 
short  and  thick  legs,  each  terminated  by  four  spread- 
ing hoofs,  of  which  the  innermost  is  the  smallest 
on  the  forefoot ;  the  two  middle  ones,  answering 
to  those  which  are  principally  developed  in  the  hog° 
are  the  largest  in  both  feet. 


The  hind-limb  (writes  Professor  Owen  in  continu- 
at*«n)  is  buried  in  the  skin  of  the  flank  nearly  to  the 
prominence  of  the  heel.  Thick  flakes  of  cuticle  are 
in  process  of  detachment  from  the  sole.  There  is 
.a  well-defined  white  patch  behind  each  foot,  but  I 
looked  in  vain  for  any  indications  of  the  glandular 
orifice  which  exists  in  the  same  part  in  the  rhinoc- 
eros. The  naked  hide  covering  the  broad  back 
and  sides  is  of  a  dark  India-rubber  color,  impressed 
by  numerous  fine  wrinkles  crossing  each  other,  but 
disposed  almost  transversely.  When  I  first  saw 
the  beast  it  had  just  left  its  bath,  and  a  minute  drop 
of  a  glistening  secretion  was  exuding  from  each  of 
the  conspicuous  mucosebaceous  pores,  which  are 
dispersed  over  the  whole  integument,  at  intervals 
of  from  eight  lines  to  an  inch.  This  gave  the 

*  Satan. 


hide,  as  it  glistened  in  the  sunshine,  a  very  pecu- 
liar aspect.  When  the  animal  was  younger  the 
secretion  had  a  reddish  color,  and  being  poured  out 
more  abundantly,  the  whole  surface  brcame  paint- 
ed over  with  it  every  time  he  quitted  his  bath. 

Nothing  can  be  more  correct  than  this  admirable 
description,  with  the  exception  of  the  alleged 
nakedness  of  the  skin.  The  integument,  at  first 
sight,  does  appear  naked  ;  but  it  is  found,  as  I  have 
stated  above,  on  a  close  inspection,  to  be  covered 
with  very  fine  downy  hairs,  which  will,  probably, 
totally  or  partially  vanish  as  the  animal  advances 
in  age. 

The  gambols  and  civilities  of  this  denizen  of  the 
Nile  are  not  confined  to  his  keepers.  I  had  been 
told  that,  when  out  in  the  giraffe-paddock,  one  of 
the  giraffes  had  bowed  down  its  head  to  him  one 
day,  and  that  the  hippopotamus  opened  his  mouth 
and  took  the  giraffe's  muzzle  into  the  gulf,  which 
seems  to  be  his  way  of  kissing.  On  Sunday,  the 
9th  of  June,  I  saw  one  of  the  giraffes  do  the  same 
thing,  with  exactly  the  same  result.  He  had,  I 
have  been  told,  formed  an  acquaintance  with  a  giraffe 
which  was  to  have  been  brought  over  with  him, 
but  was  unfortunately  drowned. 

Such  is  the  quadruped  whose  animal  magnetism 
Punch  has  so  forcibly  depicted  attracting  the  crowds 
who  are  hurrying  to  its  presence.  If  a  mate — 
and  this  is  far  from  improbable — should  be  sent 
over  to  join  him  in  August  by  the  same  liberal  and 
friendly  potentate  to  whom  we  owe  the  present 
object  of  admiration,  who  shall  predict  the  conse- 
quence of  the  double  attraction  ? 

The  third  Gordian  did  not  live  to  see  the  por- 
tentous games  for  which  he  had  caused  so  vast  an 
assemblage  of  wild  beasts  to  be  brought  to  Rome. 
The  milliarium  s&culum  was  celebrated  by  Philip 
not  without  suspicion,  almost  amounting  to  proof, 
that  the  blood  of  his  predecessor  was  on  his  head. 
Philip,  in  his  turn,  did  not  live  long  after  the 
celebration  of  that  prolonged  festival,  during  which 
two  thousand  gladiators  at  once  joined  in  the  death- 
struggle  for  the  gratification  of  the  people.  Defeat- 
ed by  Decius,  who  had  got  himsdlf  proclaimed 
emperor  in  Pannonia,  Philip  fell  under  the  merci- 
less hands  of  his  own  soldiers  near  Verona,  in  the 
year  of  Christ  249,  before  he  had  completed  his 
forty-fifth  year,  and  before  the  fifth  year  of  his 
enjoyment  of  his  bad  eminence  had  run  its  course. 
The  hippopotamus,  which  formed  a  principal  feat- 
ure in  those  murderous  diversions,  appears  not 
only  on  the  large  brass  of  Otacilia  Severa,  but 
also  on  one  of  Philip,  (about  A.  D.  247,)  and  on 
another  of  Hadrian.  These,  and  the  well-known 
plinth  of  the  statue  of  Nilus,  show  how  familiar 
this  huge  form  was  to  Roman  eyes. 

I  have  not  heard  whether  Mr.  Wyon  has  been 
directed  to  strike  a  medal  to  commemorate  this 
substantial  gift  of  his  highness  the  Viceroy  of 
Egypt,  or  whether  Mr.  Gibson  has  received  a 
commission  to  immortalize  him  in  marble  ;  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Sir  Edwin  Landseer 
must  hand  down  his  likeness  to  posterity. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


63 


FOR  behold,  I  will  send  serpents  and  cockatrices 
among  you,  which  will  not  be  charmed  ;  and  they 
shall  sting  you,  saith  the  Lord. — Jerem.  viii.  17. 

Such  is  the  version  given  in  Barker's  Bible,* 
of  the  passage  which  figuratively  threatens  the 
sending  of  the  Babylonians  among  the  Jews, 
"  who,"  as  the  old  commentator  writes  in  the 
margin,  "  shall  utterly  destroy  them  in  such  sort, 
as  by  no  meanes  they  shall  escape." 

The  version  now  read  in  our  churches  runs 
thus — 

For  behold  I  will  send  serpents,  cockatrices, 
among  you  t  which  will  not  be  charmed,  and  they 
shall  bite  yju,  saith  the  Lord  ; 

and  is  more  correct,  zoologically  speaking. 

What  the  serpents  threatened  were,  is  more 
apocryphal.  The  Greek  version  has  "  basilisks." 
Both  basilisks  and  cockatrices — at  least  those  so- 
called  venomous  creatures  of  which  such  marvel- 
lous tales  are  to  be  found  in  old  authors — are 
fabulous  creations.  The  Hebrew  word  is  Tsep- 
huon  or  Tsiphoni,  (Tsepha  or  Zepha,)  and  has 
been  rendered  as  applicable  to  the  aspic,  the  regu- 
lus,  (another  word  for  the  basilisk,)  the  hemior- 
rhoos,  the  viper,  and  the  cerastes. 

But  whatever  the  species  of  serpents  may  be, 
the  passage  above  cited,  as  well  as  others,  which 
will  readily  occur  to  the  scriptural  scholar,  shows 
the  great  antiquity  of  the  art  of  charming  ser- 
pents. Thus,  in  Psalm  Iviii.,  we  have  the  follow- 
ing description  of  the  wicked  : — 

4  Their  poyson  is  even  like  the  poyson  of  a  ser- 
pent :  like  the  deafe  adder  that  stoppeth  his  eare. 

5  Which  heareth  not  the  voyce  of  the  inchanter, 
though  he  be  most  expert  in  charming.f 

These  incantations  were  too  tempting  to  be 
neglected  by  the  poets.  The  shepherd  in  Virgil 
alludes  to  their  destructive  powers  : — 

Carminibus  Circe  socios  mutavit  Ulixi : 
Frigidus  in  pratis  cantando  rumpitur  anguis.t 

Manilius  and  Ovid  use  nearly  the  same  expres- 
sions.    Tl  e  words  of  the  former  are — 

Consultare  fibras,  et  rumpere  vocibus  ang-ues. 

And  the  Poet  of  Love,  the  Moore  of  his   day, 
writes  : — 

Carmine  dissiliunt  abruptis  faucibus  angues 
Inque  suos  fontes  versa  recurrit  aqua.§ 

The  Psylli,  and  their  neighbors  the  Marmaridae, 
were  among  the  most  famous  for  their  power  over 

*  1615. 

t  Barker's  Bible.  In  the  version  now  read  in  our 
churches  the  words  are : — 

4  Their  poison  is  like  the  poison  of  a  serpent:  they  are  like 
the  deaf  adiler  that  stoppelh  her  ear ; 

6  Which  will  not  hearken  to  the  voice  of  charmers,  charming 
never  so  wisely. 

And  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  the  words  are  : — 

4  They  are  as  venomous  aa  the  poison  of  a  serpent :  even  like 
the  deaf  adder  that  stoppeth  her  ears  ; 

5  Which  refuseth  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  charmer:  charm  he 
never  so  wisely. 

t  Pfiarmaceutria,  Eclog.  viii. 
§  Amor.  lib.  ii.  El.  1. 


serpents.  These  African  charmers  of  snakes,  and 
the  Italian  Marsi,  carried,  if  we  are  to  believe  one 
half  of  the  accounts  recorded  of  their  feats,  this 
magic  art  to  the  highest  point  of  infallibility. 
The  magi  played  upon  pipes  made  of  the  legs  and 
bones  of  cats  to  call  the  serpents  together  ;  upon 
the  same  principle,  I  suppose,  that  actuated  the 
less  ambitious  enchanters,  who,  to  rid  themselves 
of  mice,  played  upon  a  pipe  made  of  their  verte- 
brae, the  dulcet  and  attractive  notes  of  which 
brought  every  mouse  within  hearing  to  listen  to 
the  performance. 

Crates  of  Pergamus  saith,  that  in  Hellespont, 
about  Parium,  there  was  a  kind  of  men,  (whom  he 
nameth  Ophiogenes,)  that  if  one  were  stung  with 
a  serpent,  with  touching  only  will  ease  the  paine. 
And  if  they  doe  but  lay  their  hands  upon  the 
wound,  are  wont  to  draw  forth  all  the  venom  out 
of  the  body.  And  Varro  testifies,  that  even  at  this 
day  there  be  some  there  who  warish  and  cure  the 
stinging  of  serpents  with  their  spittle,  but  there 
are  but  few  such  as  he  saith.  Agatharchides 
writes  that,  in  Affrick,  the  Psyllians  (so  called  of 
King  Psyllus,  from  whose  race  they  were  descend- 
ed, and  whose  sepulchre  or  tombe  is  at  this  day 
present  to  be  seene  in  a  part  of  the  greater  Syrtes) 
could  do  the  like.  These  men  had  naturally  that 
in  their  own  bodies,  which,  like  a  deadly  bane  and 
poyson,  would  kill  all  serpents ;  for  the  very  air 
and  sent  that  breathed  from  them  was  able  to  stu- 
pifie  and  strike  them  starke  dead.  And  by  this 
means  they  used  to  try  the  chastitie  and  honestie 
of  their  wives.  For  so  soon  as  they  were  delivered 
of  children,  their  manner  was  to  expose  and  pre- 
sent the  silly  babes  new  borne,  unto  the  utmost  fell 
and  cruel  serpents  they  could  find  :  for  if  they  were 
not  right,  but  gotten  in  adultery,  the  said  serpents 
would  not  avoid  and  fly  from  them.  This  nation 
verily  in  generall  hath  been  defeated  and  killed  up 
in  manner  all  by  the  Nasomenes,  who  now  inhabit 
those  parts  wherein  they  dwelt :  howbeit  a  kind 
remains  still  of  them,  from  those  that  made  shift 
away  and  fled,  or  else  were  not  present  at  the  said 
bloudy  battel ;  but  there  are  very  few  of  them  at 
this  day  left.* 

The  author  of  Thaumatographia,  in  his  chapter 
on  nutrition,  alludes  to  the  Ophiogenes  of  the 
Hellespont,  and  says  that  they  fed  upon  serpents, 
and  that  a  certain  man  who  rejoiced  in  that  diet, 
was  thrown  into  a  cask  filled  with  them,  and  ie- 
mained  intact.  This  probably  was  the  envoy 
Hexagon,  who  said  that  he  came  from  the  Psylli 
or  Marsi,  and  whom  the  Roman  consuls,  ty  way 
of  testing  the  trdth  of  his  mission,  cast  into  a 
vessel  swarming  with  venomous  snakes,  which 
miraculously  harmed  him  not. 

The  Marsians  in  Italy  at  this  present  continue 
with  the  like  naturall  vertue  against  serpents  : 
whom  being  reputed  to  be  descended  from  ladie 
Circes  son,f  the  people  in  this  regard  do  highly 
esteem,  and  are  verily  persuaded  that  they  have  in 
them  the  same  facultie  by  kinde.  And  what  great 
wonder  is  this,  considering  that  all  men  carry 
about  them  that  which  is  poyson  to  serpents  :  for 
if  it  be  true  that  is  reported,  they  will  no  bet- 
ter abide  the  touching  with  man's  spittle,  than 


*  Holland's  Pliny. 


t  Marsus. 


64 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


scalding  water  cast  upon  them  :  but  if  it  happen  to 
light  within  their  chawes,  or  mouth,  especially  if 
it  come  from  a  man  that  is  fasting,  it  is  present 
death.* 

Ovid,  in  his  poetical  treatise  on  cosmetics,^ 
thus  opens  his  lessons  to  his  fair  pupils : — 

Disci  te,  <juae  faciem  commendet  cura,  puellae  : 
Et  quo  sit  vobis  forma  tuenda  modo. 

Not  only  does  he  give  them  every  information  that 
can  add  to  the  attractions  of  their  toilet — he  does 
more,  he  tells  them  what  to  avoid.  He  warns 
them  against  witchcraft  and  incantation  : — 

Nee  mediae  Marsis  finduntur  cantious  angues  ; 
Nee  redit  in  fontes  unda  supina  suos. 

Now  let  us  see  what  Dr.  Mead  says  to  these 
supernatural  gifts : — 

There  were  formerly  in  Africa  a  nation  of  peo- 
ple called  Psylli,  famous  for  the  cure  of  the  bite  of 
serpents,  with  which  the  country  above  all  others 
abounds.  (PLiN.  Nat.  Hist.  lib.  vii.  c.  2.)  These 
people  were  thought  to  have  something  in  their 
constitution  so  contrary  to  poison,  that  no  venom- 
ous creature  would  touch  them  :  and  it  was  pre- 
tended that  they  made  this  a  trial  of  the  legitimacy 
of  their  children.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  they 
performed  the  cure  in  a  manner  very  surprising  to 
the  vulgar,  that  is  by  applying  their  mouth  to  the 
wound  and  sucking  out  the  venom.  The  Marsi  in 
Italy  pretended  to  the  same  power.  Some  cere- 
monies to  overawe  the  patient  and  gain  reverence 
to  the  operator,  were  added  to  the  performance  : 
but  Celsus,  the  Latin  Hippocrates,  has  wisely  ob- 
served tha»,  •'  These  people  had  no  particular  skill 
in  this  management,  but  boldness  confirmed  by 
use ;  for  the  poison  of  the  serpent,  as  likewise 
some  hunting  poisons  which  the  Gauls  particularly 
make  use  of,  are  not  hurtful  in  the  mouth  but  in 
the  wound.  Therefore  whosoever  will,  after  their 
example,  suck  the  wound,  will  be  in  no  danger 
himself,  and  will  save  the  life  of  the  wounded 
person." — Medecin.  lib.  v.  c.  17.  J 

Aristotle  (Hist.  Anim.  lib.  viii.  c.  29)  states, 
that  the  saliva  of  a  man  is  hostile  to  most  ser- 
pents ;  and  Nicander  declares  that  serpents  fly  from 
even  the  smell  of  human  spittle. 

Of  the  efficacy  of  sucking  the  wound  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  as  we  shall  see  when  we  come  to 
consider  the  treatment  of  persons  bitten  by  ser- 
pents. At  present  we  must  return  to  the  regions 
of  enchantment,  from  which  honest  Dr.  Mead  has 
drawn  us  aside,  and  call  up  one  or  two  of  the 
ancient  worthies  whose  names  as  serpent-charmers 
and  serpenticides  have  survived  to  this  day. 

Whether  Atyr  was  a  Psyllian  or  Marsian  does 
not  appear ;  but  Silius  Italicus  has  imortalized 
him  and  his  powers  : — 

Nee  non  serpentes  diro  exarmare  veneno 
Doctus  Atyr,  tactuque  graves  sopire  chelydors. 

Lucian  has  handed  down  the  name  of  Babylonius 
the  Chaldaean,  who,  sallying  forth  in  the  morning 
into  the  open  country,  pronounced  certain  sacred 
names  from  an  ancient  volume,  made  his  lustra- 
tions with  sulphur  and  a  torch,  stalked  solemnly 
round  in  a  circle  thrice,  and  evoked  all  the  ser- 


*  Holland's  Pliny. 

*  Mead  on  Poisons. 


t  Medicamina  faciei. 


pents  that  infested  the  region.  The  reptiles 
obeyed  him  as  if  he  had  been  another  St.  Patrick, 
crept  out  at  his  summons  whether  they  would  or 
no,  and,  no  doubt,  suffered  accordingly. 

That  it  was  part  of  the  ancient  priestcraft  to 
render  the  most  venomous  serpents  innoxious  hard- 
ly needs  proofs. 

Herodotus  relates  that,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Thebes,  there  are  sacred  serpents  which  are  quite 
harmless.  That  they  were  of  the  most  deadly 
nature  is  evident  from  his  description  :  for  he  says 
that  they  are  diminutive  in  size,  with  two  horns 
that  grow  out  of  the  top  of  the  head.  This  ex- 
actly describes  the  poisonous  cerastes,  of  which 
more  anon.  Herodotus  goes  on  to  state,  that  when 
these  serpents  died  they  were  buried  in  the  tem- 
ple of  Zeus;  for,  writes  the  Halicarnassian,  they 
are  sacred  to  that  god  (Ammon.)*  The  venom- 
ous Naia  Haje,  El  Haje,  or  Haje  Nascher  of  the 
modern  Arabs,  was  chosen  by  the  Ancient  Egyp- 
tians as  the  emblem  of  Cneph,  the  good  deity, 

i[t(av^  and  as  the  mark  of  regal  dignity.  The 
front  of  the  tiara  of  the  majority  of  the  statues  of 
the  Egyptian  deities  and  kings  is  adorned  with  this 
serpent,  and  Denon's  figure,  with  the  forepart 
erect  and  the  hood  expanded,  represents  it  nearly 
as  it  appears  on  the  sculptured  stone. 

Its  congener,  the  deadly  Nag,f  the  cobra  de 
capello  of  the  Asiatic  Portuguese,  is  still  worship- 
ped in  some  of  the  temples  of  India,  where  the 
Hindus  believe  that,  in  sagacity  and  the  malicious 
tenacity  with  which  it  treasures  up  a  wrong,  it  is 
not  inferior  to  man.  They  have  been  seen,  upon 
a  pipe  being  played  to  them,  to  come  forth  from 
their  holes  in  the  sacred  edifice,  and  feed  upon  the 
hand  ;  and  it  is  when  the  people  behold  this  most 
destructive  serpent  in  so  subdued  and  docile  a 
state,  that  they  believe  that  the  god  has  entered 
into  the  form. 

The  only  modes  by  which  such  docility  and 
harmlessness  could  be  effected,  without  resorting 
to  what  are  usually  termed  supernatural  means, 
are  actual  extraction  of  the  poison  fangs  and  their 
glands  ;  kindness,  which,  if  judiciously  and  perse- 
veringly  managed,  will  tame  almost  every  living 
creature  ;  the  use  of  certain  herbs  by  the  serpent- 
charmer  ;  and,  lastly,  an  innate  possession  and  con- 
sciousness of  the  power,  with  a  firm  conviction 
that  no  serpent,  however  venomous,  can  injure 
the  operator. 

That  most  of  the  priests  and  jugglers  availed 
themselves  of  the  obvious  and  mechanical  means 
of  rendering  such  serpents  as  the  cerastes  and  both 
species  of  naia  innoxious,  there  can  be  little  doubt. 
But  when  we  come  to  examine  the  evidence,  we 
shall  feel  as  little  that  some  snake  charmers  may 
handle  the  most  venomous  serpents,  while  in  full 
possession  of  their  power  of  inflicting  death,  with 
perfect  safety. 

Conjurers  (writes  Hasselquist)  are  common  in 
Egypt.  They  are  peasants  from  the  country,  who 
come  to  Cairo  to  earn  money  this  way.  I  saw  one 


*  Euterpe.  74. 


t  JVai'a  tripudians. 


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65 


the  24th,  who  was  expert  enough,  and  in  dexterity 
equalled  those  we  have  in  Europe ;  but  can  do  one 
thing  the  Europeans  are  not  able  to  imitate  ;  namely, 
fascinate  serpents.  They  take  the  most  poisonous 
vipers  with  their  bare  hands,  play  with  them,  put 
them  in  their  bosoms,  and  use  a  great  many  more 
tricks  with  them,  as  I  have  often  seen.  The  per- 
son I  saw  on  the  above  day  had  only  a  small  viper, 
but  I  have  frequently  seen  them  handle  those  that 
are  three  or  four  feet  long,  and  of  the  most  horrid 
sort.  I  inquired  and  examined  whether  they  had 
cut  out  the  viper's  poisonous  teeth  ;  but  I  have  seen 
with  my  own  eyes  they  do  not :  we  may  therefore 
conclude,  that  there  are  to  this  day  Psylli  in  Egypt ; 
but  what  art  they  use  is  not  easily  known.  Some 
people  are  very  superstitious ;  and  the  generality 
believe  this  to  be  done  by  some  supernatural  art, 
which  they  obtain  from  invisible  beings.  I  do  not 
know  whether  their  power  is  to  be  ascribed  to  good 
or  evil ;  but  I  am  persuaded  that  those  who  under- 
take it  use  many  superstitions.  I  shall  hereafter 
give  a  plainer  description,  with  some  observations 
on  this  subject.* 

This  was  in  June,  and,  according  to  his  promise, 
Hasselquist  thus  resumes  the  subject : — 

The  3d  (July.) — Now  was  the  time  to  catch 
all  sorts  of  snakes  to  be  met  with  in  Egypt,  the 
great  heats  bringing  forth  these  vermin ;  I  there- 
fore made  preparation  to  get  as  many  as  I  could, 
and  at  once  received  four  different  sorts,  which  I 
have  described  and  preserved  in  aqua  vita.  These 
were  the  common  Viper,  the  Cerastes  of  Alpin, 
Jaculus,  and  an  Anguis  marinus.  They  were 
brought  me  by  a  Psylli,  who  put  me,  together  with 
the  French  consul,  Lironcourt,  and  all  the  French 
nation  present,  in  consternation.  They  gathered 
about  us  to  see  how  she  handled  the  most  poison- 
ous and  dreadful  creatures,  alive  and  brisk,  without 
their  doing,  or  even  offering  to  do,  her  the  least 
harm.  When  she  put  them  into  the  bottle  where 
they  were  to  be  preserved,  she  took  them  with  her 
bare  hands,  and  handled  them  as  our  ladies  do  their 
laces.  She  had  no  difficulty  with  any  but  the  Vi- 
perae  officinales,  which  were  not  fond  of  their  lodg- 
ing. They  found  means  to  creep  out  before  the  bot- 
tle could  be  corked.  They  crept  over  the  hands 
and  bare  arms  of  the  woman,  without  occasioning 
the  least  fear  in  her ;  she  with  great  calmness  took 
the  snakes  from  her  body,  and  put  them  into  the  place 
destined  for  their  grave.  She  had  taken  these  ser- 
pents in  the  field  with  the  same  ease  she  handled 
them  before  us ;  this  we  were  told  by  the  Arab  who 
brought  her  to  us.  Doubtless  this  woman  had  some 
unknown  art  which  enabled  her  to  handle  these 
creatures.  It  was  impossible  to  get  any  informa- 
tion from  her,  for  on  this  subject  she  would  not 
open  her  lips.  The  art  of  fascinating  serpents  is  a 
secret  among  the  Egyptians.  It  is  worthy  the  en- 
deavors of  all  naturalists,  and  the  attention  of  every 
traveller,  to  learn  something  decisive  relative  to 
this  affair.  How  ancient  this  art  is  amongst  the 
Africans,  may  be  concluded  from  the  ancient  Marsi 
and  Psylli,  who  were  from  Africa,  and  daily  showed 
proofs  of  it  at  Rome.  It  is  very  remarkable  that 
this  should  be  kept  a  secret  for  more  than  2000 
years,  being  known  only  to  a  few,  when  we  have 
seen  how  many  other  secrets  have  within  that  time 
been  revealed. 

Monsieur  Jacquin  wrote  to  Linnaeus  that  he  had 
purchased  the  secret  of  charming  serpents,  and 

*  Voyages  and  Travels  in  the  Levant,  in  the  years 
1749,  50,  51,  52. 


that  the  Aristolochia  anguicida,  the  Mexican  Aris- 
tolochia,  or  Birthwort,  was  the  plant  used  by 
the  Indians  for  that  purpose.  Forskhal  also  in- 
formed the  illustrious  Swede  that  the  Egyptians 
use  a  species  of  Aristolochia,  but  without  desig- 
nating it.  To  return  to  Hasselquist : — 

The  circumstances  relating  to  the  fascination  of 
serpents  in  Egypt  stated  to  me,  were  principally, — 

1st. — That  the  art  is  only  known  to  certain  fami- 
lies, who  propagate  it  to  their  offspring. 

2d. — The  person  who  knows  how  to  fascinate 
serpents,  never  meddles  with  other  poisonous  ani- 
mals ;  such  as  scorpions,  &c.  There  are  different 
persons  who  know  how  to  fascinate  these  animals  ; 
and  they  again  never  meddle  with  serpents. 

3d. — Those  that  fascinate  serpents  eat  them  both 
raw  and  boiled,  and  even  make  broth  of  them,  which 
they  eat  very  commonly  amongst  them ;  but  in 
particular,  they  eat  such  a  dish  when  they  go  out 
to  catch  them.  I  have  even  been  told  that  serpents, 
fried  or  boiled,  are  frequently  eaten  by  the  Ara- 
bians, both  in  Egypt  and  Arabia,  though  they  know 
not  how  to  fascinate  them,  but  catch  them  either 
alive  or  dead. 

4th. — After  they  have  eaten  their  soup,  they 
procure  a  blessing  from  their  scheik,  who  uses 
some  superstitious  ceremonies,  and,  amongst  others, 
spits  on  them  several  times  with  certain  gestures. 

After  making  this  statement,  Hasselquisl  thus 
continues : — 

The  matter  of  getting  a  blessing  from  the  priest 
is  pure  superstition,  and  certainly  cannot  in  the  least 
help  to  fascinate  serpents ;  but  they  beli&ve,  or  will 
at  least  persuade  others,  that  the  power  of  fasci- 
nating serpents  depends  upon  this  circumstance. 
We  see,  by  this,  that  they  know  how  to  make  use 
of  the  same  means  used  by  other  nations;  namely, 
to  hide  under  the  superstitious  cloak  of  religion 
what  may  be  easily  and  naturally  explained,  espe- 
cially when  they  cannot  or  will  not  explain  the  nat- 
ural reason.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  all  which 
was  formerly,  and  is  yet,  reckoned  witchcraft, 
might  come  under  the  same  article  with  the  fasci- 
nation of  serpents.  The  discovery  of  a  small 
matter  may  in  time  teach  everybody  to  fascinate 
serpents  ;  and  then  this  power  may  be  exercised  by 
those  who  have  not  got  it  from  the  hands  of  the 
holy  scheik,  just  as  the  heat  would  naturally  hatch 
chickens  in  an  Egyptian  oven ;  whether  a  scheik 
did  or  did  not  lay  himself  naked  on  it,  when  the 
eggs  are  just  put  in  :  yet  to  this  ceremony  do  the 
superstitious  Egyptians  ascribe  the  happy  event  of 
the  chicken  being  hatched,  when  they  are  asked 
the  reason.  I  have  been  told  of  a  plant  with  which 
they  anoint  or  rub  themselves  before  they  touch  the 
serpents ;  but  I  have  not  hitherto  received  the  least 
description  of  it,  therefore  I  regard  it  as  fabulous. 

Bruce,  whose  testimony  is  worthy  of  all  credit, 
notwithstanding  the  vile  usage  he  met  with  from 
many  of  his  contemporaries,  shall  next  be 
called : — 

The  cerastes  (writes  the  Abyssinian  traveller) 
moves  with  great  rapidity,  and  in  all  directions — 
forward,  backward,  and  sideways.  When  he  in- 
clines to  surprise  any  one  who  is  too  far  from  him, 
he  creeps  with  his  side  towards  the  person,  and  his 
head  averted,  till,  judging  his  distance,  he  turns 
round,  springs  upon  him,  and  fastens  upon  the  part 
next  to  him;  for  it  is  not  true  what  is  said,  that 
the  cerastes  does  not  leap  or  spring.  I  saw  one  of 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


them  at  Cairo,  in  the  house  of  Julian  and  Rosa, 
crawl  up  the  side  of  a  box,  in  which  there  were 
many,  and  there  lie  still  as  if  hiding  himself,  till 
one  of  the  people  who  brought  them  to  us  came 
near  him,  and  though  in  a  very  disadvantageous 
posture,  sticking,  as  it  were,  perpendicular  to  the 
side  of  the  box,  he  leaped  near  the  distance  of  three 
feet,  and  fastened  between  the  man's  forefinger 
and  thumb,  so  as  to  bring  the  blood.  The  fellow 
showed  no  signs  of  either  pain  or  fear,  and  we  kept 
him  with  us  full  four  hours,  without  his  applying 
any  sort  of  remedy,  or  his  seeming  inclined  to  do 
so. 

So  much  for  the  bite.  But  it  may  be  said  that 
the  serpent  may  have  been  so  mutilated  as  to  make 
his  bite  innoxious. 

To  make  myself  assured  (adds  Bruce)  that  the 
animal  was  in  its  perfect  state,  I  made  the  man 
hold  him  by  the  neck,  so  as  to  force  him  to  open  his 
mouth,  and  lacerate  the  thigh  of  a  pelican,  a  bird 
I  had  tamed  as  big  as  a  swan.  The  bird  died  in 
about  thirteen  minutes,  though  it  was  apparently 
affected  in  fifty  seconds ;  and  we  cannot  think  this 
was  a  fair  trial,  because  a  very  few  minutes  before 
it  had  bit  the  man,  and  so  discharged  part  of  its 
virus,  and  it  was  made  to  scratch  the  pelican  by 
force,  without  any  irritation  or  action  of  its  own. 

Again,  speaking  of  the  incantation  of  serpents, 
Bruce  says — 

There  is  no  doubt  of  its  reality.  The  Scriptures 
are  full  of  it.  All  that  have  been  in  Egypt  have 
seen  as  many  instances  as  they  chose.  Some  have 
doubted  that  it  was  a  trick,  and  that  the  animals  so 
handled  had  been  first  trained,  and  then  disarmed 
of  the  power  of  hurting  ;  and,  fond  of  the  discovery, 
they  have  rested  themselves  upon  it,  without  ex- 
'  periment,  in  the  face  of  all  antiquity.  But  I  will 
;  not  hesitate  to  aver  that  I  have  seen  at  Cairo  (and 
jjjff  this  may  be  seen  daily  without  trouble  or  expense) 
a  man,  who  came  from  above  the  catacombs,  where 
the  pits  of  the  mummy-birds  are  kept,  who  has 
taken  a  cerastes  with  his  naked  hand  from  a  number 
of  others  lying  at  the  bottom  of  the  tub,  has  put  it 
upon  his  bare  head,  covered  it  with  the  common  red 
cap  he  wears,  then  taken  it  out,  put  it  in  his 
breast,  and  tied  it  about  his.  neck  like  a  necklace  ; 
after  which  it  has  been  applied  to  a  hen  and  bit  it, 
which  has  died  in  a  few  minutes  ;  and,  to  complete 
the  experiment,  the  man  has  taken  it  by  the  neck, 
and,  beginning  at  his  tail,  has  ate  it,  as  one  would 
do  a  carrot  or  a  stock  of  celery,  without  any  seem- 
ing repugnance. 

What  follows  is  strongly  in  favor  of  immunity 
by  the  use  of  vegetable  antidotes. 

We  know  from  history  that  where  any  country 
has  been  remarkably  infested  with  serpents,  there 
the  people  have  been  screened  by  this  secret. 
The  Psylli  and  Marmarides  of  old,  undoubtedly, 
were  defended  in  this  manner — 

Ad  quorum  cantus  mites  jacudre  cerastse. 

SIL.  ITAL.  lib.  iii. 

To  leave  ancient  history,  I  can  myself  vouch  that 
all  the  black  people  in  the  kingdom  of  Sennaar, 
whether  Funge  or  Nuba,  are  perfectly  armed  against 
the  bite  of  either  scorpion  or  viper.  They  take  the 
cerastes  in  their  hands  at  all  times,  put  them  in 
their  bosoms,  and  throw  them  to  one  another,  as 
children  do  apples  or  balls,  without  having  irritated 


them  by  this  usage  so  much  as  to  bite.  The 
Arabs  have  not  this  secret  naturally,  but  from  their 
infancy  they  acquire  an  exemption  from  the  mortal 
consequences  attending  the  bite  of  these  animals, 
by  chewing  a  certain  root,  and  washing  themselves 
(it  is  not  anointing)  with  an  infusion,  of  certain 
plants  in  water. 

The  next  paragraph  is  particularly  worthy  of 
attention.  It  points  out  the  subdued  state  of  the 
serpent  when  in  the  hands  of  one  of  these  protected 
people. 

One  day,  when  I  was  with  the  brother  of  Shekh 
Adelah,  prime  minister  of  Sennaar,  a  slave  of  his 
brought  a  cerastes,  which  he  had  just  then  taken 
out  of  a  hole,  and  was  using  it  with  every  sort  of 
familiarity.  I  told  him  my  suspicion  that  the  teeth 
had  been  drawn,  but  he  assured  me  they  were  not, 
as  did  his  master  Kittou,  who  took  it  from  him, 
wound  it  round  his  arm,  and,  at  my  desire,  ordered 
the  servant  to  carry  it  home  with  me.  I  took  a 
chicken  by  the  neck,  and  made  it  flutter  before 
him  ;  his  seeming  indifference  left  him,  and  he  bit 
it  with  great  signs  of  anger  ;  the  chicken  died  al- 
most immediately.  I  say,  his  seeming  indifference, 
for  I  constantly  observed,  that  however  lively  the 
viper  was  before,  upon  being  seized  by  any  of  these 
barbarians  he  seemed  as  if  taken  with  sickness  and 
feebleness,  frequently  shut  his  eyes,  and  never 
turned  his  mouth  towards  the  arm  of  the  person 
that  held  him.  I  asked  Kittou  how  they  came  to 
be  exempted  from  this  mischief;  he  said  they  were 
born  so  ;  and  so  said  the  grave  and  respectable  men 
among  them.  Many  of  the  lighter  and  lower  sort 
talked  of  enchantments  by  words  and  by  writing, 
but  they  all  knew  how  to  prepare  any  person  by 
medicines,  which  were  decoctions  of  herbs  and 
roots. 

Bruce  was  evidently  satisfied  in  his  own  mind 
that  a  person  could  be  so  prepared  as  to  do  the 
same  feats  as  these  fascinators  performed  ;  and  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that  he  did  not  make  the  exper- 
iment, or  have  it  made,  though  it  can  hardly  be  a 
subject  of  wonder  or  blame  that  he  did  not. 

I  have  seen  many  (says  Bruce)  thus  armed  for  a 
season  "do  pretty  much  the  same  feats  as  those  that 
possessed  the  exemption  naturally.  The  drugs 
were  given  me,  and  1  several  times  armed  myself 
as  I  thought,  resolved  to  try t the  experiment,  but 
my  heart  always  failed  me  when  I  came  to  the 
trial ;  because,  among  these  wretched  people,  it 
was  a  pretence  they  might  very  probably  have  shel- 
tered themselves  under,  that  I  was  a  Christian — 
that,  therefore,  it  had  no  effect  upon  me.  I  have 
still  remaining  by  me  a  small  quantity  of  this  root, 
but  never  had  an  opportunity  of  trying  the  experi- 
ment. 

On  the  26th  of  May,  the  day  on  which  I  first 
saw  the  hippopotamus,  I  witnessed  the  performance 
of  the  Arab  snake-charmers,  of  whom  I  have  al- 
ready spoken.  After  their  dinner  they  came  from 
the  giraffe-house,  proceeding  along  the  gravel 
walk  to  the  reptile-house,  on  the  floor  of  which, 
about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  or  a  little 
later,  the  performance  took  place.  The  charmers 
took  up  a  position  at  the  end  of  the  house,  opposite 
to  the  lodging  of  the  great  Pythons,  of  whose  size 
the  old  Arab  had  heard  with  something  very  like 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


67 


incredulity.  The  company  stood  in  a  semicircle, 
and  at  a  respectful  distance.  There  was  not  much 
difficulty  in  getting  a  front  place,  but  those  behind 
pressed  the  bolder  spectators  rather  inconveniently 
forward. 

Standing  in  the  open  space  the  old  Arab  said 
something  to  the  young  one,  who  stooped  down 
under  the  reptile  cases  on  the  north  side  of  the 
rooia,  and  drew  out  a  large  deal  box  with  a  sliding 
cover,  which  looked  like  a  box  fyr  stowing  away 
a  set  of  Brobdignag  chessmen,  drew  off  the  cover, 
thrust  in  his  hand,  and  pulled  out  a  large  long 
naia  haje.  After  handling  it  and  playing  with  it 
a  little  while,  he  set  it  down  on  the  floor,  half 
squatted  close  to  it,  and  fixed  his  eye  on  the  snake. 
The  serpent  instantly  raised  itself,  expanded  its 
hood,  and  turned  slowly  on  its  own  axis,  following 
the  eye  of  the  young  Arab,  turning  as  his  head, 
or  eye,  or  body  turned.  Sometimes  it  would  dart 
at  him,  as  if  to  bite.  He  exercised  the  most  per- 
fect command  over  the  animal.  All  this  time  the 
old  Arab  stood  still,  pensively  regarding  the  oper- 
ation ;  but  presently  he  also  squatted  down,  mut- 
tering some  words,  opposite  to  the  snake.  He 
evidently  affected  the  reptile  more  strongly  than 
his  more  mercurial  relative,  though  he  remained 
motionless,  doing  nothing  that  I  could  see  but  fix- 
ing his  eyes  upon  the  snake,  with  his  face  upon  a 
level  with  the  raised  head  of  the  serpent,  which 
now  turned  all  its  attention  to  him,  and  seemed  to 
be  in  a  paroxysm  of  rage.  Suddenly  it  darted 
open-mouthed  at  his  face,  furiously  dashing  its 
expanded  whitish-edged  jaws  into  the  dark  hollow 
cheek  of  the  charmer,  who  still  imperturbably  kept 
his  position,  only  smiling  bitterly  at  his  excited 
antagonist.  I  was  very  close,  and  watched  very 
narrowly  ;  but  though  the  snake  dashed  at  the  old 
Arab's  face  and  into  it  more  than  twice  or  thrice, 
with  its  mouth  wide  open,  I  could  not  see  the 
projection  of  any  fang. 

Then  the  old  Arab,  who,  it  was  said,  had  had 
the  gift  of  charming  serpents  in  his  family  for  a 
long  series  of  years,  opened  another  box,  and  took 
ont  four  or  five  great  lizards,  and  provoked  the 
naia  with  them,  holding  them  by  the  tails  in  a 
sort  of  four-in-hand  style.  Then  the  youth 
brought  out  a  cerastes,  which,  I  observed,  seemed 
overpowered,  .as  if,  as  the  country  people  say, 
something  had  come  over  it.  He  ,placed  it  on  the 
floor,  but  this  serpent  did  not  raise  itself  like  the 
naia,  but,  as  the  charmer  stooped  to  it,  moved  in 
a  very  odd,  agitated  manner,  on  its  belly,  regard- 
ing him  askant.  ,  I  thought  the  serpent  was  going 
to  fly  at  the  lad,  but  it  did  not.  He  took  it  up, 
played  with  it,  blew  or  spit  at  it,  and  then  set  it 
down,  apparently  sick,  subdued  and  limp.  He 
then  took  it  up  again,  played  with  it  a  second 
time,  gathered  it  up  in  his  hand,  put  it  in  his 
bosom,  went  to  another  box,  drew  the  lid,  and 
brought  out  more  snakes,  one  of  which  was  an- 
other naia,  and  the  others  of  a  most  venomous 
kind. 

Now  there  were  two  naias,  with  heads  and 
bodies  erect,  obeying,  apparently,  the  volition  of 


the  charmers.  One  of  the  snakes  bit  the  youth 
on  the  naked  hand,  and  brought  the  blood  ;  but 
he  only  spat  on  the  wound  and  scratched  it  with 
his  nail,  which  made  the  blood  flow  more  freely 
Then  lie  brought  out  more  lizards  of  a  most 
revolting  aspect.  By  this  time  the  floor  of  the 
reptile-house,  that  formed  the  stage  of  the  charm- 
ers, began  to  put  one  in  mind  of  the  incantation 
scene  in  Der  Freischiilz,  only  that  the  principal 
performers  looked  more  like  the  Black  Huntsman 
and  one  of  his  familiars  than  Rodolph  and  Caspar, 
and  the  enchanters'  circle  was  surrounded  with 
fair  ladies  and  their  well-dressed  lords,  instead  of 
the  appalling  shapes  which  thronged  round  the 
affrighted  huntsman  at  the  casting  of  the  charmed 
bullets.  The  Arabs,  holding  the  snakes  by  the 
tails,  let  their,  bodies  touch  the  floor,  when  they 
came  twisting  and  wriggling  on  towards  the  spec- 
tators, who  now  backed  a  little  upon  the  toes  of 
those  who  pressed  them  from  behind.  Sometimes 
the  charmers  would  loose  their  hold,  when  the 
serpents,  as  if  eager  to  escape  from  their  torment- 
ors, rapidly  advanced  upon  the  retreating  ring ; 
but  they  always  caught  them  by  the  tails  in  time, 
and  then  made  them  repeat  the  same  advances. 
I  kept  my  position  in  front  throughout,  and  had  no 
fear,  feeling  certain  that  Mr.  Mitchell,  and  those 
under  whose  superintendence  this  highly  amusing 
and  instructive  establishment  is  so  well  conducted, 
would  not  have  permitted  the  exhibition  to  take 
place,  if  there  had  been  the  least  danger.  Besides 
this,  I  observed  that  the  charmers  only  used  their 
own  serpents,  which  they  had,  I  presume,  brought 
with  them ;  and  I  confess  that  the  impression 
upon  my  mind  was  that  they  had  been  rendered 
innoxious  by  mechanical  means. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  gift  or  power 
of  charming  serpents  is  said  to  be  hereditary,  like 
the  alleged  craft  of  the  Dowsers,  as  they  are  called, 
of  Cornwall,  who  use  the  divining  rod  with  success 
in  so  many  instances.  The  Arab  lad,  who  is  only 
fifteen,  but  who  is  said  to  have  left  a  wife  behind 
him  in  Egypt,  when  asked  how  he  obtained  his 
power,  stated  that  his  father  was  a  holy  man,  and 
not  afraid  of  serpents — that  neither  is  he  afraid, 
and  that  they  cannot  hui't  him.  The  old  man, 
Jabar  Abou  Haijab,  states  that  they  belong  to  a 
tribe  known  by  the  name  of  Rufaiah,  who  have 
handed  down  the  mystery  of  serpent-charming 
from  father  to  son  for  many  generations,  and  over 
whom  serpents  have  no  hurtful  power.  The 
tribe,  it  would  seem  from  the  accounts  of  these 
Arabs,  derives  its  name  from  Rufai,  a  Mahomme- 
dan  saint,  whose  tomb  is  said  still  to  remain  at 
Busrah,  and  to  it  the  Rufaiah  make  pilgrimages. 
It  is  stated  to  be  the  haunt  of  numerous  serpents, 
whose  mouths  are  closed  by  the  saint,  so  that  the. 
pilgrims  go  boldly  among  them  without  fear  or 
harm. 

The  serpents  which  figure  most  prominently  in 
the  performance  of  these  Arabs  are  the  Egyptian 
cobra,  Naia  haje ;  and  the  cerastes,  Vipera  (ceras- 
tes) caudalis.  A  sketch  of  the  history  and  habits 
of  these  snakes  may  be  deemed  not  misplaced. 


68 


LEAVES    FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF   A   NATURALIST. 


The  Egyptian  cobra,  which  wants  the  curious 
spectacle-like  mark  on  the  back  of  the  neck  that 
distinguishes  the  Asiatic  species,  is  of  a  somewhat 
dark  and  greenish  hue,  marked  with  brownish,  and 
attaining  the  length  of  from  three  to  five  feet. 
This  is  the  serpent  which  the  Egyptian  conjurers 
know  how  to  render  stiff  and  immovable  by  press- 
ing the  nape  of  the  neck  with  the  finger,  and  thus 
throwing  it  into  a  sort  of  catalepsy.  The  serpent 
is  thus  apparently  converted  into  a  rod  or  stick. 

Traces  of  this  conversion  occur  in  the  Scrip- 
tures— for  instance,  where  Pharaoh's  wise  men 
cast  down  their  rods,  which  were  turned  into  ser- 
pents, but  were  devoured  by  the  serpent  of  Aaron. 

Take  thy  rod  and  cast  it  before  Pharaoh,  and  it 
shall  be  turned  into  a  serpent. 

Then  went  Moses  and  Aaron  unto  Pharaoh,  and 
did  even  as  the  Lord  had  commanded  :  and  Aaron 
cast  foorth  his  rod  before  Pharaoh  and  before  his 
servants,  and  it  was  turned  into  a  serpent. 

Then  Pharaoh  called  also  for  the  wise  men,  and 
sorcerers  :  and  those  charmers  also  of  Egypt  did  in 
like  manner  with  their  enchantments. 

For  they  cast  downe  every  man  his  rod,  and  they 
were  turned  into  serpents :  but  Aaron's  rod  de- 
voured their  rods.* 

Dr.  Smith,  in  his  Zoology  of  South  Africa, 
gives  figures  of  no  less  than  three  varieties  of 
Naia  haje.  They  do  not  appear  to  differ  specifi- 
cally from  the  naia  of  Egypt.  Dr.  Smith  closely 
compared  them,  and  he  could  not  perceive  greater 
differences  between  some  of  the  individuals  from 
the  Cape  and  those  from  Egypt  than  he  had  found 
between  some  of  those  inhabiting  Southern  Africa. 
The  young  of  the  Cape  reptile  corresponded  ex- 
actly with  the  figure  of  the  young  Egyptian  naia 
given  by  Geoffrey. 

The  rarest  of  the  southern  varieties  is  called  by 
the  colonists  Spungh-slang,  or  spitting-snake,  from 
its  alleged  power  of  ejecting  poison  to  a  distance. 
Dr.  Smith  describes  this  reptile  as  being  of  a  uni- 
form livid,  blackish-brown,  the  livid  tinge  strong- 
est on  the  under  parts,  so  as  to  present  almost 
purplish-slate  color,  which  becomes  very  dark  ant 
shining  towards  the  head.  He  remarks  that  al 
naias  of  South  Africa  distil  poison  from  the  points 
of  their  fangs  when  much  irritated,  and  are  able 
by  a  forcible  expiration,  to  eject  a  portion  of  it  to 
a  considerable  distance.  Both  the  Europeans  am 
natives  aver  that  this  snake  has  the  power  of  cast 
ing  its  poison  to  a  distance  of  several  feet,  espec 
ially  if  the  ejection  be  favored  with  the  wim 
blowing  the  same  way.  They  declare  that  th 
reptile  often  projects  it  into  the  eyes  of  those  whi 
intrude  upon  its  haunts,  and  that  the  injury  i 
followed  by  inflammation,  which  terminates  no 
unfrequently  in  loss  of  sight.  It  must  have  bee 
.one  of  these  spit-venoms  that  Mr.  Gordon  Cum 
ming  encountered,  when  watching  in  one  of  hi 
hiding-holes  for  the  brute  aristocracy  of  the  forest 
One  night,  while  so  engaged,  a  horrid  snake 

*  Barker's  Bible,  Gen.  c.  vii.  See  also  c.  iv.,  wher 
it  is  written  that  the  rod  of  Moses  was  turned  into  a  ser 
pent. 


hich  Kleinboy  had  tried  to  kill  with  his  loading- 
od,  flew  up  at  my  eye  and  spat  poison  into  »'t. 
mmediately  I  washed  it  well  out  at  the  fountain. 

endured  great  pain  all  night,  but  next  day  the  eye 
ame  all  right.* 

A  naval  officer,  who  distinguished  himself  at 
he  taking  of  Acre  under  Sir  C.  Napier,  had  a 
arrow  escape  from  one  of  these  naias.  He  was 
hooting  near  the  Cape,  when  he  trod  close  to  or 
upon  one  of  these  horrible  reptiles.  The  snake 
ivas  coiled  round  his  leg  in  a  moment,  and  its 
nflated  head  was  raised  to  give  the  fatal  dash, 
when  his  companion,  with  admirable  presence  of 
mind,  placed  the  muzzle  of  his  gun  close  to  the 
Cobra's  head,  which  was  drawn  back  for  the  pur- 
pose of  a  surer  aim  and  a  more  vigorous  stroke, 
tnd  blew  its  head  off,  without  inflicting  the  slight- 
est injury  on  his  grateful  friend. 

The  malignant  perseverance  of  these  serpents, 
when  their  anger  is  once  fairly  roused,  is  most 
remarkable?  Dr.  Smith,  while  walking  in  the 
vicinity  of  Graham's  Town,  happened  to  excite 
the  attention  of  a  naia,  which  immediately  raised 
its  head  and  warned  him  of  his  danger  by  the 
strength  of  its  expiration.  'The  serpent  then 
commenced  an  advance,  and  the  doctor  observes 
that  had  he  not  retired  he  would,  in  all  probability, 
have  suffered,  if  he  had  not  been  fortunate  enough 
to  disable  it ;  which,  possibly,  would  not  have 
lappened,  considering,  as  he  says,  that  these  cobras 
are  very  active.  An  officer  of  the  Cape  Corps, 
for  whose  accuracy  the  doctor  vouches,  informed 
that  distinguished  zoologist  that  he  was  chased 
twice  round  his  wagon  by  one  of  them,  and  that 
the  pursuit  might  have  been  prolonged  if  a  Hotten- 
tot had  not  disabled  the  enraged  reptile  by  a  blow 
from  a  long  stick. 

The  Asiatic  form  of  this  genus  of  serpents  is 
even  more  highly  developed  than  that  of  the  Afri- 
can species.  The  general  length  attained  by  the 
cobra  de  capello  in  Ceylon  ranges  between  two 
and  four  feet.  Their  color  varies,  and  the  light- 
colored  individuals  were  called,  in  Dr.  Davy's  time, 
and  perhaps  are  so  called  still,  high-caste  snakes, 
whilst  those  of  a  darker  color  are  designated  as 
low-caste  snakes.  The  largest  seen  by  the  doctor 
was  nearly  six  feet  long ;  but  Captain  Percival, 
in  his  account  of  the  island  (1805)  states  that  this 
hooded  snake  is  found  there  of  a  length  varying 
from  six  to  fifteen  feet.  When  enraged  and  pre- 
paring for  an  attack,  the  head  and  body  are  raised 
to  a  height  of  three  or  four  feet,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  rest  of  the  body  is  coiled  to  accelerate  the 
spring,  and  add  force  to  it.  At  this  moment  the 
membrane,  which  lies  along  part  of  the  head  and  the 
sides  of  the  neck,  and  is  hardly  perceptible  till  the 
animal  is  irritated,  is  distended  somewhat  in  the 
form  of  a  hood,  just  as  it  is  in  the  Egyptian  cobras  ; 
but  in  the  Asiatic  nag  the  hood  is  marked  with  a 
curious  streak  or  pattern,  somewhat  in  the  shape 
of  a  horse-shoe,  and  resembling  a  pair  of  barnacles, 
or  spectacles  without  arms,  whence  its  French 

*  A  Hunter's  Life  in  South  Africa. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


69 


and  English  name  of  serpent  &  lunettes  and  spec- 
tacle-snake. Captain  Percival  looks  upon  this 
distension  of  the  hood — which,  it  seems,  always 
precedes  the  attack  of  the  reptile — as  a  warning 
to  those  within  the  serpent's  reach  ;  and  relates 
that  he  had  more  than  once  been  an  eye-witness 
of  instances  where  the  fatal  bite  had  been  avoided 
by  parties  who  had  thus  been  put  on  their  guard. 
But  if  this  signal  of  death  be  not  attended  to,  woe 
to  the  victim  !  for  after  the  serpent  has  exhibited 
the  fatal  sign  its  motions  are  too  rapid  to  admit  of 
escape  from  its  fangs.  The  captain  dwells  on 
the  fondness  of  these  deadly  reptiles  for  music, 
and  states  that,  even  when  newly  caught,  they 
seem  to  listen  with  pleasure  to  the  notes,  and 
writhe  themselves  into  attitudes  accordingly. 
While  so  employed,  they  must  remind  the  specta- 
tor, who  has  duly  read  up  his  Copperjield,  of  Mr. 
Uriah  Heep.  This  Uriah-like  propensity  is  duly 
taken  advantage  of  by  the  Indian  jugglers,  who 
bestow  some  pains  in  taming  the  cobras,  and  at 
length  teach  them  to  keep  time  in  their  writhings 
and  nutations  to  the  airs  which  they  play  on  their 
flageolets. 

Dr.  Davy  thus  describes  the  mode  of  operation 
in  Ceylon,  where,  as  well  as  on  the  continent  of 
India,  frequent  displays  are  made  by  men  called 
snake-charmers  : — 

The  exhibition  is  rather  a  curious  one,  and  not  a 
little  amusing  to  those  who  can  calmly  contemplate 
it.  The  charmer  irritates  the  snake  by  striking  it, 
and  by  rapid  threatening  motions  of  his  hand  ;  and 
appeases  it  by  his  voice^  by  gentle  circular  move- 
ments of  his  hand,  and  by  stroking  it  gently. 

This  looks  very  like  magnetism. 

He  avoids  with  great  agility  the  attacks  of  the 
animal  when  enraged,  and  plays  with  it  and  handles 
it  only  when  pacified,  when  he  will  bring  the  mouth 
of  the  animal  in  contact  with  his  forehead,  and 
draw  it  over  his  face.  The  ignorant  vulgar  believe 
that  these  men  really  possess  a  charm,  by  which 
they  thus  play  without  dread,  and  with  impunity, 
with  danger.  The  more  enlightened,  laughing  at 
this  idea,  consider  the  men  impostors,  and  that  in 
playing  their  tricks  there  is  no  danger  to  be  avoided, 
it  being  removed  by  the  extraction  of  their  poison- 
fangs.  The  enlightened  in  this  instance  are  mis- 
taken, and  the  vulgar  are  nearer  the  truth  in  their 
opinion.  I  have  examined  the  snakes  I  have  seen 
exhibited,  and  have  found  their  poison-fangs  in  and 
uninjured.  These  men  do  possess  a  charm,  though 
not  a  supernatural  one,  viz.,  that  of  confidence  and 
courage ;  acquainted  with  the  habits  and  disposition 
of  the  snake,  they  know  how  averse  it  is  to  use  the 
fatal  weapon  nature  has  given  it  for  its  defence  in 
mreine  danger,  and  that  it  never  bites  without 
.nuch  preparatory  threatening.  Any  one  possess- 
ing the  confidence  and  agility  of  these  men  may 
irritate  them,  and  I  have  made  the  trial  more  than 
once.  They  will  play  their  tricks  with  any  hooded 
snake,  whether  just  taken,  or  long  in  confinement, 
but  with  no  other  kind  of  poisonous  snake. 

Captain  Knox,  in  \\isHistoryofCeyton,  observes 
that  the  Cingalese  have,  in  the  ichneumon,  a  pow- 
erful auxiliary  against  the  multitude  of  snakes  to 
which  they  are  exposed.  Small  as  it  is,  it  will,  he 


says,  venture  to  attack  even  the  cobra  de  capello, 
the  poison  of  whose  bite  is  hardly  equalled  in  dan- 
ger by  that  of  any  other  serpent.  Percival  relates 
that  one  of  these  quadrupeds,  placed  in  a  close 
room  where  a  snake  had  been  previously  introduced, 
instead  of  darting  at  it,  ran  peeping  about  the  apart- 
ment to  discover  some  outlet  through  which  it 
might  escape  ;  but,  finding  none,  it  returned  to  its 
master,  crept  into  his  bosom,  and  could  by  no 
means  be  persuaded  to  face  the  snake.  When, 
however,  both  were  removed  out  of  the  house  into 
an  open  space,  the  ichneumon  instantly  flew  at  the 
reptile,  and  soon  destroyed  its  antagonist.  After 
the  victory  the  little  quadruped  suddenly  dis- 
appeared for  a  few  minutes,  and  again  returned. 
Mr.  Percival  concludes  that  during  its  absence  it 
had  found  the  antidotal  herb,  and  eaten  of  it ;  but 
he  does  not  state  the  grounds  for  his  conclusion. 

For  the  cure  of  the  otherwise  mortal  bite  the 
natives  allege  that  the  root  of  the  Ophiorrhiza 
mungos,  the  herb  pointed  out  by  the  ichneumon, 
is  a  specific.  Dr.  Davy  saw  and  has  recorded  the 
effects  of  the  bite.  A  cobra,  about  five  feet  long, 
and  about  six  inches  in  circumference  in  the 
broadest  part,  bit  a  hen  in  his  presence,  fixing  hia 
fangs  in  the  skin  covering  the  lower  part  of  the 
pectoral  muscle,  and  keeping  its  hold  for  two  or 
three  seconds,  when  the  doctor  succeeded  in  shaking 
it  ofF.  The  hen  seemed  to  be  but  little  affected. 
She  died,  however,  eight  hours  after  the  infliction 
of  the  bite. 

Another  cobra  fastened  on  the  thigh  of  a  young 
cock,  inflicting  a  rather  severe  wound,  from  which 
the  blood  flowed.  Instantly  the  bird  became  lame  ; 
in  less  than  a  minute  it  could  no  longer  stand. 
Respiration  became  hurried  and  rather  laborious  in 
about  five  minutes,  and  some  alvine  dejections  took 
place.  In  about  ten  minutes  the  cock  had  all  the 
symptoms  of  being  in  a  comatose  state,  in  which 
he  continued  for  about  five  minutes,  his  respiration 
becoming  gradually  more  feeble  and  labored.  In 
seventeen  minutes  his  breathing  was  hardly  per- 
ceptible, when  he  was  seized  with  a  convulsive  fit, 
which  recurred  four  or  five  times  in  the  course  of 
the  next  minute,  each  fit  being  less  violent  than 
the  former.  The  last  of  these  proved  fatal. 

Terrible  as  these  reptiles  are,  the  Cingalese 
venerate  them  rather  than  dread  them,  looking  on 
them  as  belonging  to  another  world,  and  appear- 
ing here  merely  as  visitors.  They  regard  the 
cobra  as  greatly  superior  to  man,  and  akin  to  the 
gods,  believing  it  to  be  possessed  of  great  power. 
Impressed  with  this  belief,  they  refrain  from  kill- 
ing it  if  they  can  possibly  avoid  it,  and  even  when 
they  find  one  in  the  house  they  will  not  slay  it, 
but,  putting  it  into  a  bag,  throw  bag  and  all  into 
the  water  ;  for  they  think  that  it  has  a  good  and 
generous  disposition,  and  that,  unless  it  be  pro- 
voked, it  will  do  no  harm  to  man.  The  cobra 
which  bit  the  hen  in  Dr.  Davy's  presence,  as 
above  narrated,  was  found  in  a  bag  floating  down 
the  Kalang-ganga. 

With  these  sentiments  towards  those  serpents, 
it  will  be  no  matter  of  surprise  to  find  them,  or 


70 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


snakes  nearly  allied  to  them  in  form  and  appear- 
ance, playing  a  distinguished  part  in  the  Cingalese 
theology  and  system  of  the  universe. 

The  Naga-bhawene  is  described  as  lying  under 
Asoora-bhawene,  and  as  ten  thousand  leagues  in 
circumference.  This  region  is  a  hollow  sphere. 
Mountains,  hills,  lakes,  or  rivers,  there  are  none. 
Vegetation  there  is  none,  with  one  exception,  the 
tree  called  Parasattoo :  but  this  single  tree  amply 
supplies  the  defect ;  for  it  not  only  prodigally 
bears  an  immense  variety  of  flowers  and  fruits, 
but,  in  addition,  everything  that  is  desirable. 
This  wondrous  country  is  the  abode  of  a  numerous 
race  of  serpents,  similar  in  kind  to  the  hooded 
snakes,  but  of  great  beauty,  size,  and  power,  capa- 
ble of  passing  from  one  part  of  the  world  to 
the  other,  and  shining  like  gods.  No  light  have 
they  but  that  transcendent  brilliancy  which  ema- 
nates from  their  own  bodies,  and  thus  they  enjoy  a 
perpetual  day  infinitely  exceeding  ours  in  bright- 
ness. These  beings,  illuminating  all  around  them, 
like  so  many  Radiant  Boys,*  were,  during  their 
former  lives  on  earth,  persons  of  great  purity  and 
goodness,  and  almost  deserving  of  becoming  goo's. 
But,  alas  for  poor  human  nature !  their  high  vir- 
tues were  sullied  by  some  vice,  that  of  malice 
having  been  predominant,  and  they  were  doomed 
to  their  splendid  but  reptile  forms.  But,  snakes 
though  they  be,  they  are  Bhoodists,  are  possessed 
of  a  relic,  and  worship  in  temples.  They  lead  an 
apolaustic  life,  residing  in  well-furnished  houses, 
enjoying  society,  eating  and  drinking  according  to 
their  pleasure,  for  they  have  only  to  form  a  wish, 
and  they  immediately  have  any  article  of  food  they 
want ;  only  it  always  makes  its  appearance  in  the 
form  of  a  frog. 

They  live  under  a  monarchy,  and,  like  the  Cin- 
galese, are  distributed  into  castes.  Their  king, 
Mahakilla-naga-rajaya,  is  in  every  way  superior  to 
the  rest.  With  his  powerful  assistance  the  gods 
and  Asooras  churned  the  milky  sea.  Mahakilla 
then  wound  himself  round  a  rock,  and  they,  pulling 
at  his  two  extremities,  set  the  mass  in  motion  and 
accomplished  their  work.  It  is  fortunate  for  the 
human  race  that  these  snakes  are  naturally  mild 
and  benevolent,  and  do  harm  only  when  pro- 
voked;  for,  if  they  were  so  disposed,  they  could 
annihilate  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants  of  earth  by 
a  single  blast  of  their  poisonous  breaths. 

The  Cingalese  have  a  legend  touching  the  deadly 
enmity  which  is  said  to  exist  between  the  noya 
(naia)  and  the  polonga,  another  most  venomous 
snake,  of  which  the  natives  have  the  utmost  hor- 
ror. The  late  Sir  Hudson  Lowe  graphically  de- 
scribed to  me  the  terror  of  the  natives  when  they 
beheld  one,  and  the  shrieking  tone  in  which  they 
cried  out  its  name. 

But  the  legend  ? 

A  noya  and  a  polonga  (nintipolonga,  or  tic- 
polonga,  as  it  is  generally  termed)  met,  once  upon 
a  time,  in  a  dry  season  when  water  was  very 
scarce.  The  polonga,  almost  dying  with  thirst, 

*  The  Irish  story  of  the  apparition  of  the  Radiant  Boy 
is  alluded  to. 


asked  the  noya  where  he  might  find  water.  Now 
the  noya  had  a  little  before  met  with  a  vessel  of 
water,  wherein  an  infant  lay  playing ;  for  it  is 
usual  with  the  Cingalese  to  wash  their  children 
in  a  vessel  or  large  bowl  of  water,  and  then  leave 
their  babes  to  tumble  and  flounce  about.  Well, 
at  this  vessel  the  noya  quenched  his  thirst,  but, 
as  he  was  drinking,  the  child,  as  it  lay  sporting 
therein,  hit  the  serpent  on  the  head  with  his  hand. 
The  good-natured  noya,  knowing  there  was  no 
malice  in  the  case,  bore  the  blow  patiently,  and 
having  drunk  his  fill  went  his  way  without  harm- 
ing the  child. 

So  the  noya  told  the  polonga  where  this  vessel 
was,  but  knowing  him  to  be  a  surly,  hasty  crea- 
ture, and  being  desirous  withal  to  preserve  the 
child,  made  him  promise  not  to  hurt  the  child, 
who,  the  noya  added,  was  very  likely  to  give  him 
a  pat  on  the  head,  as  he  had  done  to  him.  Now 
the  mind  of  the  noya  misgave  him  ;  he  half-re- 
pented that  he  had  told  the  polonga  where  to  find 
the  water,  and  went  after  him,  fearing  his  touchy 
temper.  His  worst  fears  were  realized ;  for,  as 
the  polonga  was  drinking,  the  child  patted  him  on 
the  head,  and  the  irritable  serpent  bit  the  little 
innocent  on  the  hand  and  killed  it.  This  the  noya 
saw,  and,  burning  with  indignation,  bitterly  re- 
proached the  polonga  with  his  baseness,  fought 
him,  slew  him,  and  devoured  him.  And  so  these 
serpents  when  they  meet  do  to  this  day,  fighting 
to  the  death,  and  the  conqueror  eating  the  body 
of  the  vanquished.  The  Cingalese,  in  allusion  to 
this  determined  hostility,  have  a  proverb,  which 
they  quote  when  they  see  men  irreconcilable, 
comparing  them  to  a  noya  and  a  polonga. 

The  cerastes,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the 
other  venomous  serpent  that  prominently  figured 
in  the  exhibition  of  our  Arab  snake-charmers  at 
the  gardens  of  the  Zoological  Society. 

The  length  of  a  full-grown  cerastes  is  about 
fourteen  inches.'  The  ground  color  of  the  upper 
parts  varies  in  different  individuals,  being  either 
yellowish-red,  spotted,  and  variegated  with  other 
colors ;  of  a  darker  hue,  differing  but  little  from 
the  tint  of  the  spots,  which,  in  such  case,  are  seen 
indistinctly  ;  or  of  a  steel  or  ashy  gray,  with  much 
darker  spots  tinted  with  the  same  hue.  Beneath 
the  color  is  a  pale  rose  with  a  pearly  lustre.  The 
head  is  very  distinct,  and  the  angles  of  the  jaws 
diverge  considerably,  giving  great  width  to  the 
hinder  part,  while  the  anterior  portion  is  narrower. 
The  nose  is  rounded ;  the  nostrils  are  situated 
near  its  apex,  each  in  the  centre  of  a  thick  pro- 
jecting scale.  The  eyebrows  are  arched,  and  near 
the  middle  of  each  is  a  slender,  pointed,  slightly 
recurved  spine  or  horn,  from  which  the  serpent 
takes  its  name.  The  markings  on  the  head,  as 
well  as  those  on  the  body,  vary  in  different  indi- 
viduals. The  body  is  thick  in  proportion  to  its 
length,  and  the  tail  is  short,  tapering  rather  sud- 
denly, and  pointed. 

Its  habits  are  most  indolent ;  buried  in  the  burn- 
ing sand,  it  nurses  its  sweltering  venom  till  it  is 
roused  by  hunger  or  trampled  upon,  arid  then  woe 


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71 


to  the  intruder !  Its  inactivity  is  thrown  off,  anc 
its  movements  brisk.  When  once  it  seizes  the 
offender,  it  retains  its  hold  with  great  obstinacy, 
requiring  considerable  force  to  detach  it.  After 
a  naia  has  inflicted  a  wound  it  makes  haste  to 
escape,  but  the  cerastes  and  other  vipers,  even 
<vhen  detached  by  force  and  thrown  upon  the 
ground,  remain  on  the  spot,  or  retreat  very  slowly 
from  it. 

But  what  is  the  use  of  the  horns  ? 

Old  authors  state  that  it  lies  buried  in  the  sand, 
with  the  tips  of  the  horns  just  projecting  above 
the  surface,  as  a  bait  for  the  birds,  somewhat 
after  the  manner  of  the  anglers  among  fishes 
These  last  lie  concealed  in  the  mud  or  sand,  leav- 
jng  the  long  fibres  that  spring  from  the  anterior 
part  of  the  head  out  to  attract  the  smaller  fry, 
which  they  then  devour.  The  birds,  they  say 
take  the  tips  of  the  serpent's  horns  for  little  worms 
or  grubs,  approach  for  the  purpose  of  feeding  on 
them,  and  fall  a  prey  to  the  serpent. 

We  find  the  latent  and  subtle  habits  of  the  ce- 
rastes alluded  to  in  the  forty-ninth  chapter  of  Gen- 
esis, containing  Jacob's  prophecy  relative  to  his 
offspring. 

Dan  shall  bee  a  serpent  by  the  way,  an  adder  by 
the  path,  biting  the  horse  heeles,  so  that  his  rider 
shall  fall  backward.* 

The  patriarch,  by  this  comparison  with  the  art- 
ful cerastes,  intimates  that  the  Danites  should  have 
their  revenge  upon  their  enemies,  and  extend  their 
conquests  more  by  stratagem  than  open  bravery. 

Nicander  also  refers  to  this  habit  of  lying  hid 
in  the  sands,  or  in  a  wheel-track,  and  biting  the 
horses  or  cattle  that  pass  near  or  over  it. 

This  African  speciesf  has  the  character  of  be- 
ing able  to  abstain  from  water  longer  than  almost 
any  other  serpent.  Indolently  nestled  in  the  arid 
sand,  long  periods  elapse  between  the  falling  of 
the  rain  upon  its  abode.  The  old  French  quatrain, 
printed  under  the  Portrait  de  la  Ceraste,  alludes  to 
this  abstinence : — 

Ceste  ceraste  a  comme  deux  cornettes 
Dessus  les  yeux,  et  se  passe  de  boire 
Plus  que  serpent,  qu'il  est  possible  croire. 
Rempliz  sont  de  poison  telles  bestes.t 

Both  the  naia  and  the  cerastes  have  been  named 
as  the  asp  which  saved  Cleopatra  from  the  degra- 
dation of  a  Roman  triumph  ;  but  there  can  be  lit- 
tle doubt  that  the  cerastes  was  the  "  poor  venom- 
ous fool"  to  which  the  Egyptian  queen  appealed 
"  to  be  angry  and  dispatch."  Some,  indeed,  de- 
clare that  she  did  not  apply  the  asp  at  all,  but 
inoculated  herself  with  the  poison  by  means  of  a 
needle  ;  and  Galen  relates  from  other  authors,  that 
she  killed  herself  by  pouring  the  venom  of  an  asp 
into  a  wound  made  in  her  arm  by  her  own  teeth. 
It  seems,  at  first,  to  be  a  strange  ^dispensation 
that  creatures  should  be  sent  on  earth  armed  with 
venom, — 

*  Barker's  Bible,  Gen.  xlix.  17. 

t  It  is  found  in  the  south  as  well  as  in  the  north  of  Africa. 

t  fortraits  d'Oyseaux,  Serpens,  fyc.    1577. 


Whose  effect 

Holds  such  an  enmity  with  blood  of  man, 
That  swift  as  quicksilver  it  courses  through 
The  natural  gates  and  alleys  of  the  body  ; 

but  if  serpents  were  to  be  created  as  part  of  the 
system  of  the  universe — and  the  links  in  the  ani- 
mal chain  would  be  largely  imperfect  if  such  forms 
did  not  exist — it  becomes  a  necessity  that  some  of 
the  race  should  be  so  armed,  in  order  to  their  tak- 
ing their  prey,  and  for  their  self-preservation 
when  attacked. 

Still,  when  one  reads  the  catalogue  of  serpents 
which  Cato  and  his  army  encountered  in  the 
Libyan  deserts,  where  the  poet*  makes  every  bite 
of  every  serpent  followed  by  the  death  of  a  man, 
the  visitation  is  startling.  And  really  this  black 
list,  from  which  it  would  seem  that  the  cerastes 
and  the  other  deadly  snakes  were  leagued  with 
Caesar,  (though  it  may  be  rather  superfluous  in 
specific  description,  and  the  different  ages  and 
states  of  one  serpent  may  have  been  multiplied 
into  many  distinct  species,)  should  not  be  looked 
on  as  a  mere  poetical  fiction  ;  for  it  was  evidently 
drawn  from  nature,  though  somewhat  highly-col- 
ored. 

Many  hundred  years  after  the  Pharsatia  was 
written,  Paul  Herman  had  in  his  museum  at 
Leyden,  preserved  in  alcohol,  and  duly  labelled 
and  catalogued,  one  venomous  serpent  whose  bite 
induced  a  deadly  sleep,  another  which  killed  by  an 
unquenchable  thirst,  a  third  whose  injected  poison 
was  immediately  followed  by  hemorrhages  from 
all  the  pores  of  the  body — so  that  the  doomed 
patient  presented  the  appearance  of  that  king  in 
his  dying  hours  who  had  revelled  in  the  horrors 
of  the  St.  Bartholomew — and  so  on. 

Dr.  Mead  truly  lays  it  down  that,  in  all  acci- 
dents of  this  nature,  the  mischief  does  not  stop  at 
the  part  affected,  but  is  carried  further,  even 
through  the  whole  body.  In  the  learned  and  ob- 
servant doctor's  time  the  nature  of  the  absorbent 
system  was  not  so  well  known  as  it  is  in  ours, 
though  there  is  a  great  deal  still  to  learn. 

Dr.  Mead  was  of  opinion  that  this  universal 
communication  was  effected  by  the  great  activity 
of  the  nervous  fluid,  one  part  of  which  being  in- 
fected immediately  tainted  all  the  rest.  Thus, 
according  to  his  theory,  the  whole  system  of 
nervous  expansions  is  drawn  into  spasms  and  con- 
vulsions ;  and,  according  to  the  different  nature  of 
the  parts  to  which  they  belong,  different  symptoms 
are  produced.  In  the  stomach  and  intestines  these 
spasms  cause  sickness,  vomitings,  and  gripes ;  in 
the  brain,  deliria,  sleepiness,  and  epileptic  fits  ; 
in  the  heart,  intermissions  of  the  arterial  pulse, 
palpitations,  and  swoonings  ;  in  the  lungs,  diffi- 
culty of  breathing,  with  strangling  and  suffoca- 
tions j  in  the  liver,  by  the  spasmodic  contraction 
of  the  biliary  ducts,  the  bile  is  returned  into  the 
blood,  and  makes  a  jaundice  ;  in  the  kidneys  the 
same  disposition  of  the  urinary  canals  interrupts 
the  secretion  of  the  urine,  and  makes  it  quite 
irregular.  In  short,  as  he  says,  the  animal  econo- 

*  Lucan. 


72 


LEAVES   FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF   A    NATURALIST. 


my  is  all  disturbed  ;  and  though  different  poisons 
may  show  their  most  remarkable  effects  in  differ- 
ent parts,  and  these  according  to  the  violence  of 
the  hurt,  may  appear  in  different  degrees,  yet  the 
symptoms  always  make  it  plain  that  the  first  bad 
impression  is  made  upon  the  animal  spirits. 

When  we  presently  come  to  consider  the  symp- 
toms that  follow  the  bite  of  one  of  the  venomous 
serpents — the  common  viper,  for  example — we 
shall  find  them  analogous  to  those  that  follow  the 
seizures  in  plagues,  cholera,  fevers,  and  other 
pestilential  diseases,  where  faintness,  giddiness, 
palpitations  of  the  heart,  and  all  the  other  disorders 
which  show  that  the  nervous  system  is  affected, 
are  manifested ;  and,  in  truth,  the  sufferer  in  such 
cases  is  laboring  under  the  effect  of  a  real  poison. 

The  symptoms  which  follow  the  bite  of  a  viper, 
when  it  fastens  either  one  or  both  its  greater  teeth 
in  any  part  of  the  body,  are  an  acute  pain  in  the 
place  wounded,  with  a  swelling  at  first  red,  but 
afterwards  livid,  which  by  degrees  spreads  further 
to  the  neighboring  parts  ;  with  great  faintness,  and 
a  quick  though  low  and  sometimes  interrupted 
pulse,  great  sickness  at  the  stomach,  with  bilious, 
convulsive  vomitings,  cold  sweats,  and  sometimes 
pains  about  the  navel ;  and  if  the  cure  be  not 
speedy,  death  itself,  unless  the  strength  of  nature 
prove  sufficient  to  overcome  these  disorders ;  and 
though  it  does,  the  swelling  still  continues  inflamed 
for  some  time  ;  nay,  in  some  cases  more  consider- 
ably, upon  the  abating  of  the  other  symptoms,  than 
at  the  beginning.  And  often  from  the  small  wound 
runs  a  sanious  liquor,  and  little  pustules  are  raised 
about  it ;  the  color  of  the  whole  skin,  in  less  than 
an  hour,  is  changed  yellow,  as  if  the  patient  had 
the  jaundice.* 

The  rapidity  with  which  animal  life  may  be 
overcome  by  the  poison  of  venomous  snakes  is 
well  illustrated  by  Mr.  Bell,  the  present  secretary 
of  the  Royal  Society  ;  and,  by  the  way,  in  one  of 
his  dissections  he  had  proof  of  the  danger  which 
may  be  incurred  in  investigating  their  anatomy. 

The  head  of  a  large  rattlesnake  had  been  taken 
off  immediately  after  death.  Some  hours  after- 
wards Mr.  Bell  was  carefully  dissecting  the 
poison-apparatus  ;  but  though  so  long  a  time  had 
elapsed  since  the  head  was  cut  away,  Mr.  Bell 
found  that  the  poison  continued  to  be  secreted  so 
fast  as  to  require  the  occasional  use  of  a  piece  of 
rag  or  sponge  ;  and  he  remarks  that  there  could 
not  have  been  altogether  less  than  six  or  eight 
drops  of  the  deadly  fluid  distilled  from  the  gland 
in  the  severed  head. 

As  might  be  expected,  if  a  succession  of 
wounds  be  given  by  a  poisonous  snake,  the  crea- 
ture last  stricken  has  the  best  chance  of  recovery. 
One  of  Mr.  Bell's  friends  had  received  a  rattle- 
snake from  America,  and  upon  the  principle 
contained  in  the  apophthegm,  Fiat  exper imentum  in 
corpore  vili,  a  pack  of  wretched  rats  were  selected 
for  the  occasion.  One  was  put  into  the  cage  with 
the  serpent,  which  immediately  struck  it.  The 
rat  was  dead  in  two  minutes.  A  second  was  then 
placed  in  the  cage,  to  the  furthest  corner  of  which 

*  Mead  On  Poisons. 


it  retreated,  uttering  piercing  cries  of  distress. 
The  serpent,  conscious  probably  of  the  late  loss 
of  virus,  lay  quiet ;  but  when  about  half  an  hour 
had  elapsed,  it  was  irritated,  and  then  struck  the 
second  rat,  which  showed  no  symptoms  of  having 
received  the  poison  for  several  minutes ;  and 
twenty  minutes  after  the  bite  elapsed  before  this 
victim  died.  Then  a  third  very  large  rat  was 
introduced  into  the  cage.  This  showed  no  signs 
of  terror,  and  the  snake  did  not  appear  to  notice 
the  intruder,  though  both  were  watched  through- 
out the  evening,  and  at  night  they  were  left 
together.  The  next  morning  Mr.  Bell's  friend 
rose  early  and  visited  the  cage.  But  the  tables 
were  now  turned.  The  snake  lay  dead  and  muti- 
lated ;  for  the  rat  had  feasted  upon  the  flesh  of  its 
back. 

Some  of  our  readers  may  remember  the  dis- 
tressing case  of  a  carpenter  who  came  to  see  the 
show  of  a  real  live  rattlesnake.  Anxious  proba- 
bly to  hear  the  serpent's  rattle,  the  carpenter 
teased  it  with  his  rule,  which,  unfortunately,  he 
dropped  into  the  cage.  He  tried  to  regain  it, 
and  while  he  was  attempting  to  reach  it  the  snake 
bit  him  in  the  hand.  He  was  taken  to  one  of  our 
hospitals,  had  the  assistance  of  some  of  the  first 
surgeons  in  London,  and  resisted  the  effects  of  the 
poison  so  long  that  hopes  were  entertained.  But 
the  shock  to  the  constitution  was  too  great,  and 
after  lingering  many  days  he  sank  under  the  con- 
sequences of  the  bite. 

Dr.  Mead  relates  a  similar  case,  with  a  much 
happier  result : — 

A  man  was  bit  on  -jne  of  his  fingers  by  a  rattle- 
snake, just  then  brought  over  from  Virginia.  He 
immediately  put  his  fingers  into  his  mouth  and 
sucked  the  wound.  His  under-lip  and  tongue  were 
presently  swelled  to  a  great  degree  ;  he  faltered 
in  his  speech,  and  in  some  measure  lost  his  senses. 
He  then  drank  a  large  quantity  of  oil,  and  warm 
water  upon  it,  by  which  he  vomited  plentifully. 
A  live  pigeon  was  cut  in  two  and  applied  to  the 
finger.  Two  hours  after  this,  the  flesh  about  the 
wound  was  cut  out,  and  the  part  burnt  with  a  hot 
iron,  and  the  arm  embrocated  with  warm  oil.  He 
then  recovered  his  speech  and  senses.  His  arm 
continued  swelled  the  next  day,  but  by  common 
applications  soon  grew  easy,  and  the  patient  suf- 
fered no  further  mischief. 

As  the  poison  of  this  snake  (continues  Dr.  Mead) 
is  more  quick  and  deadly  than  any  other  that  we 
know,  a  remedy  for  this  will  most  certainly  prove 
effectual  against  that  of  smaller  vipers,  and  all 
other  creatures  of  this  kind.  The  other  applica- 
tions here  made  use  of  (the  vomit  excepted)  could 
be  of  no  service.  The  pigeon,  the  cutting  and 
burning  the  part  two  hours  after  the  wound  had 
been  made,  did  no  good.  Embrocating  the  arm 
with  oil  only  abated  the  swelling. 

However  right  the  worthy  doctor  may  be  touch- 
ing the  pigeon,  the  excision,  and  the  cautery,  it  is 
by  no  means  clear  that  he  has  not  leaped  some- 
what hastily  to  his  conclusion  touching  the  inutil- 
ity  of  the  embrocation.  Besides  their  famous 
axungia  vipcrina,  the  viper-catchers  in  after-times 
had  the  greatest  ^nnfidence  in  olive-oil  as  a  specific 


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73 


against  the  bite  of  those  reptiles.  Relying  on  its 
efficacy,  they  suffered  themselves  to  be  bitten,  and 
would  let  the  symptoms  go  on  till  they  became 
absolutely  dangerous,  or,  as  they  said,  till  the  poi- 
son was  gaining  on  their  heart,  and  then  swallow- 
ing draughts  of  the  oil  and  rubbing  the  wounded 
limb  with  it  over  a  chafing-dish  of  coals,  became 
perfectly  cured.  The  better  opinion  latterly  seems 
to  have  been  that  the  embrocation  was  the  efficient 
part  of  the  process,  and  that  the  oil  which  was 
swallowed  did  little  if  anything  towards  the  cure. 
It  is  true  that,  in  consequence  of  the  account  in 
Phil.  Trans.  (No.  443,)  of  an  experiment,  in 
which  it  was  said  that  common  oil  rubbed  into  the 
wound  had  cured  the  bite  of  a  viper,  the  physi- 
cians of  the  French  Academy  are  said  to  have 
made  several  trials  of  the  oil  with  all  possible 
care,  and  they  pronounced  it  to  be  ineffectual  ex- 
cept as  a  fomentation  to  the  swollen  part. 

Notwithstanding  this  concurrence  of  opinion, 
the  viper-catchers  of  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century  used  olive-oil  as  an  infallible  remedy,  and 
I  have  myself  seen  it  exhibited  in  the  case  of  a  dog 
which  was  severely  bitten  in  the  leg  by  one  of 
these  serpents.  The  oil  may  be  a  specific  against 
the  bite  of  the  common  viper  only ;  for  it  should 
be  remembered  that  Linnaeus,  when  in  Scania,  was 
applied  to  by  a  woman  who  had  been  bitten  by  a 
Chersea.  He  administered  the  oil  according  to 
the  prescribed  forms.  But  the  poor  woman  died 
in  the  greatest  agonies.  This  remedy  seems, 
however,  to  be  effectual  against  the  acrid  exuda- 
tions which  emanate  from  the  pustules  of  a  toad. 
White  relates  that  a  quack  ate  one  of  those  rep- 
tiles at  Selborne  to  make  the  country  people  stare, 
and  that  afterwards  he  drank  oil. 

But  Dr.  Mead  was  a  physician  deserving  of  all 
confidence,  and  we  shall  see  that  even  in  his  mode 
of  treatment  the  oil  is  not  discarded. 

The  doctor  then  tells  us  that  "  the  first  thing 
to  be  done  upon  the  bite  of  a  viper  of  any  kind  is, 
that  the  patient  should  suck  the  wound  himself, 
if  he  can  come  at  it ;  if  he  cannot,  another  per- 
son should  do  this  good  office  for  him.  Whoever 
does  it,  ought  (to  prevent  any  inflammation  of  the 
lips  and  tongue,  from  the  heat  of  the  poison)  to 
wash  his  mouth  well  beforehand  with  warm  oil, 
and  hold  some  of  this  in  the  mouth  while  the 
suction  is  performing." 

After  this  he  prescribes  an  emetic,  (Rod.  Ipe- 
cacuan.,)  "encouraged  in  the  working  with  oil 
and  warm  water." 

This  is  conformable,  as  he  observes,  to  the 
practice  of  the  Virginian  Indians,  who  were  said 
to  cure  the  bite  of  the  rattlesnake  by  sucking  the 
wound,  and  taking  immediately  a  large  quantity 
of  a  decoction  of  the  rattlesnake  root,  which  acts  as 
a  strong  emetic,  and  laying  to  the  part  the  same 
root  chewed.  Piso  states  that  the  Indians  use  as 
remedies  against  the  bite  of  that  snake  and  others, 
the  crushed  head  of  the  serpent  applied  as  a 
plaster  to  the  wound,  round  which  they  place  the 
green  leaves  of  the  tobacco  plant. 

Celsus  recommends  the  application  of  dry  salt 


to  the  wound ;  and  this  Dr.  Mead  thinks  promises 
somewhat  more  than  the  cautery,  but  not  much. 
The  so-called  virtues  of  the  celebrated  Oriental 
snake-stones,  said  to  be  taken  from  the  head  of  the 
cobra  de  capello,  are  mere  fallacies. 

This  (says  Dr.  Mead)  Signor  Redi,  Monsieur 
Charas,  and  myself  have  experienced.  They  will, 
indeed,  when  applied,  stick  to  the  wound  for  some 
time ;  being,  as  appears  from  their  make,  not 
natural  but  factitious  bodies,  compounded  most 
probably  of  calcined  bones  and  some  testaceous 
substances  mixed  together ;  but  when  they  drop 
off,  are  found  to  have  imbibed  nothing  of  the 
venom. 

The  remedy  of  the  viper-catchers,  long  kept  by 
them  a  close  secret,  finds  greater  favor  in  the  eyes 
of  the  doctor.  Depending  upon  their  specific, 
those  employed  in  this  trade,  which  in  the  days 
of  viper-broth  and  viper-wine  was  very  brisk, 
were  no  more  afraid  of  a  bite  than  of  a  common 
puncture,  curing  themselves  immediately  by  the 
application  of  the  axungia  vipcrina  to  the  wound, 
and  to  this  day  viper's  fat  boiled  down  is  con- 
sidered in  some  countries  equally  infallible  ;  thus, 
as  in  the  case  of  applying  the  crushed  head  of  the 
serpent  to  the  wound  that  it  had  made,  exhibiting 
the  union  of  the  bane  and  the  antidote  in  the  same 
offending  body. 

Dr.  Mead  enraged  a  viper  and  caused  it  to  bite 
a  dog  in  the  nose.  Both  teeth  were  struck  deep 
in.  The  dog  howled  bitterly,  and  the  part  began 
to  swell.  The  doctor  diligently  applied  the 
axungia,  and  next  day  the  dog  was  very  well. 

But,  unfortunately  for  this  poor  dog,  some  of 
the  sceptical  gentlemen  who  saw  the  experiment 
ascribed  the  cure  more  to  the  dog's  saliva  admin- 
istered in  licking  himself,  than  to  the  virtue  of 
the  fat.  So  he  was  bit  again  in  the  tongue  and 
the  remedy  withheld.  He  died  within  four  or  five 
hours.  The  doctor  made  at  another  time  a  like 
trial  with  the  same  success. 

As  this  axungia  (says  Dr.  Mead)  consists  of 
clammy  and  viscid  parts,  which  are  withal  more 
penetrating  and  active  than  most  oily  substances ; 
so  these,  without  all  doubt,  may,  if  immediately 
applied,  involve  and,  as  it  were,  sheathe  the  volatile 
salts  of  the  venomous  liquor,  and  thus  prevent  their 
shooting  out  into  those  crystalline  spicula  which 
we  have  observed  to  be  the  main  instruments  of 
that  deadly  mischief  that  attends  the  bite.  But 
even  this  cure  ought  not  to  be  relied  on.  'Tis 
safest  to  use  the  method  we  have  mentioned  ;  and, 
moreover,  if  the  patient  feels  any  sickness,  faint- 
ness,  or  any  of  the.  nervous  symptoms  we  have 
described,  he  must  be  put  into  bed,  and  a  sweat 
must  be  promoted  by  cordial  medicines,  particu- 
larly the  Confect.  Ralegh,  and  the  salt  of  vipers, 
or,  in  want  of  this,  salt  of  hartshorn,  given  in 
warm  wine.  I  have  often  experienced  the  good 
effects  of  this  proceeding  ;  and,  after  all  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  cure  by  oil,  in  the  case  newly 
related,  the  man  was  really  not  recovered  without 
these  means. 

And  so  stands  the  case  ;  animal  fat  versus 
vegetable  oil.  The  former  may,  as  the  doctor 
says,  be  more  penetrating  ;  and  we  know  that  the 


LEAVES    FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


74 

common  elder  ointment  has  been  applied  to  dogs 
and  cattle  bitten  by  vipers  with  the  best  success  ; 
but  olive-oil  is,  nevertheless,  not  to  be  despised. 
The  viperine  remedy  probably  had  its  origin  in 
the  notion  that  the  best  remedy  for  a  venomous 
wound  was  to  apply  the  crushed  creature  that  had 
inflicted  it  to  the  injured  part. 

The  demand  for  vipers,  when  viper-wine  and 
viper-broth  were  all  the  fashion  for  invigorating 
worn-out  or  vitiated  constitutions,  was  very  great, 
and  they  formed  a  part  of  the  stores  of  every  fash- 
ionable apothecary's  dispensary.  Supplies  were 
regularly  sent  in  by  the  viper-catchers,  and  I  re- 
member hearing  a  story  of  a  large  box  full  of 
these  reptiles  having  been  received  by  one  of 
these  helpers  of  men  in  our  town.  The  lid  was 
not  properly  secured,  and  the  imprisoned  serpents 
wriggled  out,  finding  their  way  up  stairs,  down 
stairs,  and  in  my  lady's  chamber,  and  frightening 
the  maids  and  apprentices  to  death ,  some  of  whom 
found  a  viper  or  two  comfortably  coiled  up  between 
the  sheets,  just  as  they  were  about  to  step  into  bed. 

The  viperine  remedy  had  classical  authority  for 
its  ministration,  nor  did  he  who  had  the  care  of 
the  health  of  Octavius  Caesar  find  it  fail. 

The  renowned  physitian,  Antonius  Musa,  having 
certain  patients  in  cure  under  his  hand,  who  had 
ulcers  that  were  thought  incurable,  prescribed  them 
to  eat  vipers'  flesh  ;  and  wonderfull  it  is  how  soone 
he  healed  them  cleane  by  that  means.* 

Nor  was  the  great  Greek  practitioner  Craterus 
less  successful.  He  was  called  in  to  a  wretched 
slave  whose  skin  fell  from  his  bones,  advised  him 
to  eat  viper  dressed  like  fish,  and  happily  cured 
his  patient.  Galen  and  Aretaeus  speak  loudly  in 
the  praise  of  such  a  remedy  in  cases  of  elephan- 
tiasis, and  the  former  relates  many  stories  of  cures 
of  that  disease  by  viper-wine.  The  native  of 
Tonquin,  if  we  are  to  believe  Dampier,  treats  his 
friends  with  an  infusion  of  snakes  and  scorpions, 
accounting  the  arrack  in  which  they  have  been 
digested  not  only  an  invigorating  cordial,  but  an 
antidote  against  leprosy  and  all  poisons.  Dr. 
Mead,  who  mentions  this  as  well  as  the  other 
instances  above  noticed,  states  that  he  was  told  by 
a  learned  physician,  who  resided  many  years  at 
Bengal,  that  it  is  a  constanjt  practice  there  to 
order  in  diet  the  cobra  de  capello  to  persons 
wasted  by  long  distempers,  and  adds  that  the 
physicians  in  Italy  and  France  very  commonly 
prescribe  the  broth  and  jelly  of  vipers  for  invigor- 
ation  and  purification  of  the  blood.  He  evidently 
thinks  very  highly  of  the  remedy,  and  expresses 
his  opinion  that  our  physicians  deal  too  cautiously 
or  sparingly  with  it.  The  ancient  Romans  of 
distinction,  it  seems,  were  seldom  without  a  prep- 
aration of  this  kind,  which  they  took  as  an  in- 
vigorator,  and  as  conducive  to  long  and  healthy 
life.  The  capons  which  were  served  up  to  the 
beautiful  wife  of  Sir  Kenelm  Digby  were  fed 
upon  vipers. 

A  word  or  two  upon  the  poison  and  its  nature, 

*  Holland's  Pliny. 


and  I  have  done.  Dr.  Mead  observes  that  the 
venomous  juice  itself  is  of  so  inconsiderable  a 
quantity  that  it  is  no  more  than  one  good  drop 
that  does  the  execution.  How  it  operates  does 
not  seem  to  be  quite  satisfactorily  made  out. 

Ray  relates  that  a  gentleman  resident  in  India, 
having  friends  at  his  house,  sent  for  one  of  those 
natives  who  carry  about  serpents  to  show  experi- 
ments upon  the  difference  of  their  poisons.  The 
first  serpent  which  the  exhibitor  produced  was  of 
a  very  large  size,  which  he  affirmed  to  be  quite 
harmless;  and,  to  prove  his  assertion,  he  made  a 
ligature  upon  his  arm  and  provoked  the  serpent  to 
bite  him.  Having  collected  the  blood  which 
flowed  from  the  bite  to  the  quantity  of  half  a 
spoonful,  he  spread  it  upon  his  thigh.  He  then 
produced  a  smaller  one,  which  was  a  cobra  de 
capello,  and  gave  a  terrible  account  of  the  effects 
of  its  poison.  In  support  of  his  assertion,  he, 
holding  the  neck  of  the  serpent  very  tight,  pressed 
out  of  the  vesicle  of  the  jaws  about  half  a  drop  of 
its  contents,  and  put  it  upon  the  coagulated  blood 
on  his  thigh.  A  great  ebullition  and  effervescence 
immediately  ensued  in  the  manner  of  a  fermenta- 
tion, and  the  blood  was  changed  into  a  yellow 
fluid,  confirming  the  observation  that  the  bite  of  a 
viper  produces  the  jaundice. 

The  experiment  made  by  Dr.  Mead,  however, 
gave  a  very  different  result : — 

About  half  an  ounce  of  human  blood  received  in- 
to a  warm  glass,  in  which  were  five  or  six  grains 
of  the  viperine  poison  newly  ejected,  was  not  vis- 
ibly altered  either  in  color  or  consistence.  It  then 
was  and  remained  undistinguishable  from  the  same 
blood,  taken  into  another  glass,  in  which  was  no 
poison  at  all. 

The  doctor  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
microscopic  appearances  presented  by  the  poi- 
son : — 

Under  a  microscope  at  first  sight  1  could  discover 
nothing  but  a  parcel  of  small  salts  nimbly  floating 
in  the  liquor ;  but  in  a  very  short  time  the  appear- 
ance was  changed,  and  these  saline  particles  were 
now  shot  out,  as  it  were,  into  crystals  of  an  incredi- 
ble tenuity  and  sharpness,  with  something  like 
knots  here  and  there,  from  which  they  seemed  to 
proceed ;  so  that  the  whole  texture  did,  in  a  man- 
ner, represent  a  spider's  web,  though  infinitely 
finer  and  more  minute  ;  and  yet  withal  so  rigid 
were  these  pellucid  spicula  or  darts,  that  they  re- 
mained unaltered  upon  my  glass  for  several 
months. 

Redi  found  that  the  dried  poison,  when  diluted 
with  water,  was  still  active  and  deleterious. 

But  terrible  as  is  the  effect  of  the  attack  of 
these  cruel  scourges,  the  bite  or  the  instillation  of 
the  poison  into  a  wound  are  the  only  things  to  be 
dreaded : — 

Morsu  virus  habent,  et  fatum  dente  minantur 
Pocula  morte  carent. 

Tozzi,  a  viper-charmer,  astonished  the  Grand 
Duke  Ferdinand  and  the  natural  philosophers 
who  were  present  with  him,  who  had  been  speak- 
ing of  the  certain  death  which  would  await  any 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


person»vvho  might  swallow  the  poison  of  the,  viper 
by  mistake,  instead  of  spirit  of  wine  or  water,  by 
boldly  drinking  a  considerable  portion  of  it. 
They  all  looked  for  his  instant  decease,  but  he 
was  no  more  affected  than  he  would  have  been  by 
taking  so  much  water. 

Dr.  Mead  relates  a  similar  experiment : — 

We  resolved  to  end  our  poison  inquiries  by  tast- 
ing the  venomous  liquor.  Accordingly,  having 
diluted  a  quantity  of  it  with  a  very  little  warm 
water,  several  of  us  ventured  to  put  some  of  it  upon 
the  tip  of  our  tongues.  We  all  agreed  that  it 
tasted  very  sharp  and  fiery,  as  if  the  tongue  had 
been  struck  through  with  something  scalding  or 
burning.  This  sensation  went  not  off  in  two  or 
three  hours  ;  and  one  gentleman,  who  would  not  be 
satisfied  without  trying  a  large  drop  undiluted, 
found  his  tongue  swelled  with  a  little  inflammation, 


.    75 

and  the  soreness  lasted  two  days.  But  neither  his 
nor  our  boldness  was  attended  with  any  ill  conse- 
quence. 

Those  who  make  such  experiments,  as  well  as 
those  who  suck  wounds  occasioned  by  the  bite  of 
venomous  serpents,  should  be  quite  certain  that 
the  skin  of  the  lips  and  fauces  is  unbroken,  and 
that  there  is  no  wound  or  abrasion  about  the  gums 
or  tongue,  otherwise  fatal  consequences  might  en- 
sue. But  if  all  be  right,  the  immunity  with 
which  the  venom  of  serpents  may  be  taken  into 
the  stomach  ceases  to  be  surprising  when  we  re- 
member that  the  deadly  wourali  poison  is  given  in 
the  country  which  produces  it  as  a  tonic  with 
success,  and  that  milk,  so  nutritious  when  taken 
as  food,  if  it  be  injected  into  the  veins,  is 
mortal. 


THE  Reptile-house  in  the  garden  of  the  Zoo- 
logical Society  in  London  has  proved  to  be  of  no 
small  attraction.  I  remember  when  the  unhappy 
carnivora  were  doomed  to  live  therein,  breathing 
their  own  impurities,  and  dragging  on  a  miserable 
existence  as  long  as  their  constitutions  enabled 
them  to  bear  up  against  the  miasmata  that  em- 
bittered their  shortened,  incarcerated  lives.  In 
vain  was  every  argument  enforced  against  the 
continuation  of  this  condemned  cell  for  carnivo- 
rous captives.  For  a  long  time  the  answer  to  all 
remonstrances  was  after  the  reply  of  those  who 
still,  in  their  despair,  cling  to  the  Smithfield 
abomination.  The  place  was  provided  for  the 
animals,  and  they  must  bear  it  as  they  could — no 
matter  what  the  cost,  or  the  suffering,  or  the  in- 
tolerable nuisance  to  all  who  were  blest  or  cursed 
with  noses.  At  last,  the  zoological  John  Bull 
was  roused.  Like  his  political  brother,  he 
showed  his  capacity  for  bearing  a  great  deal,  and 
was  treated  accordingly  by  those  who  did  not 
know  the  nature  of  the  being  with  whom  they 
had  to  reckon.  The  zoological  bull  gave  signs 
of  kicking,  and  then  it  was  very  wisely  con- 
sidered that  there  was  something  in  his  remon- 
strance, and  a  new  den  for  the  carnivorous  quad- 
rupeds was  built,  where  they  breathe  the  free  air 
of  heaven,  and  live  long  and  comparatively  happy 
accordingly,  notwithstanding  the  cantankerous 
London  clay,  so  fatal  to  the  race.  Their  old 
roofed  dens,  every  one  of  which  looked  into  a 
close  room,  odoriferous  with  ammonia  and  all  the 
rest  of  it,  to  an  intensity  not  to  be  described, 
were  appropriated  to  the  reptiles  whose  lower 
organization  and  aptitude  for  heat,  combined  with 
the  comparative  absence  of  anything  that  could 
taint  the  air,  offered  no  similar  offehce  to  the 
senses,  while  the  lives  of  the  animals  themselves 
were  not  placed  in  jeopardy  ;  and  so,  notwith- 
standing the  croakings  and  forebodings,  this 
reptile-house  has  become  one  of  the  most  popular 
exhibitions  of  that  most  popular  vivarium.  At 
the  risk  of  being  thought  somewhat  presumptu- 
ous, I  beg  to  recommend  this  instance  to  the  con- 
sideration of  those  whose  higher  destinies  are 

I 


interwoven  with  zoological  John's  political  broth- 
er. The  latter,  like  the  former,  is,  as  we  have 
already  hinted,  long  suffering ;  but  when  he  be- 
comes restive  in  earnest,  it  is  time  to  look  out 
and  take  warning,  or,  depend  upon  it,  he  will 
toss  and  gore  several  persons. 

The  first  remark  made  by  an  accurate  observer , 
on  looking  around  the  apartment  now  dedicated 
to  the  reptilia,  will,  probably,  refer  to  the  fixed 
attitude  in  which  they  remain.  There  they  stand 
or  lie,  motionless  as  statues.  Here  and  there  ix 
snake  may  occasionally  be  seen  to  creep  or  raisu 
itself,  and  a  lizard  to  change  its  position,  but, 
generally  speaking,  especially  in  the  broad  day, 
they  are  perfectly  still ;  and  there  are  times  when 
not  one  is  in  motion  behind  the  glass  cases  in 
which  they  are  confined.  At  such  periods,  thosij 
may  be  excused  who  have  taken  the  whole  of  th>3 
reptiles  in  this  room  for  stuffed  specimens.  The 
inhabitants  of  that  Oriental  city  who  figure  so 
awfully  in  the  Arabian  tale,  turned  into  stone  for 
their  crimes,  with  the  exception  of  the  lonely  one 
whose  voice  is  heard  reading  the  Koran  in  the 
midst  of  the  petrified  sinners,  could  not  have  looked 
more  lifeless. 

Why  is  this  1 

Because  all  predatory  reptiles,  especially  snakes 
and  lizards,  take  their  prey  by  surprise  ;  and, 
added  to  this  motionless  habit,  the  animal's  haunt, 
when  on  the  lookout  for  prey,  coincides  generally 
so  harmoniously  with  its  color,  that  the  bird  or 
insect  fearlessly  approaches  and  is  caught.  Place, 
as  a  familiar  example,  a  toad  in  a  melon-bed — a 
plan  frequently  adopted  if  the  bed  be  infested  with 
emmets.  These  insects  approach  the  motionless 
toad,  whose  hue  corresponds  with  the  color  of  the 
earth  of  the  bed,  without  suspicion,  and  are  taken 
by  the  tongue  of  the  reptile  with  a  motion  too 
quick  for  the  eye  to  "follow.  All  that  can  be 
seen  is  the  approach  of  the  emmet  within  a  cer- 
tain distance — within,  in  fact,  tongue-shot,  and  its 
there  vanishing.  The  mechanism  of  this  appa- 
ratus, by  means  of  which  the  toad  takes  its  prey, 
will  be  noticed  hereafter. 

Throughout  the  animal  creation,  the  adaptation 


76 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


of  the  color  of  the  creature  to  its  haunts  is  worthy 
of  admiration,  as  tending  to  its  preservation. 
The  colors  of  insects,  and  of  a  multitude  of  the 
smaller  animals,  contribute  to  their  concealment. 
Caterpillars  which  feed  on  leaves  are  generally 
either  green,  or  have  a  large  proportion  of  that 
hue  in  the  color  of  their  coats.  As  long  as  they 
remain  still,  how  difficult  it  is  to  distinguish  a 
grasshopper  or  young  locust  from  the  herbage  or 
leaf  on  which  it  rests.  The  butterflies  that  flit 
about  among  flowers  are  colored  like  them.  The 
small  birds  which  frequent  hedges  have  backs  of  a 
greenish  or  brownish  green  hue,  and  their  bellies 
are  generally  whitish,  or  light  colored,  so  as  to 
harmonize  with  the  sky.  '  Thus  they  become  less 
visible  to  the  hawk  or  cat  that  passes  above  or 
below  them.  The  wayfarer  across  the  fields 
almost  treads  upon  tlie  skylark  before  he  sees  it 
rise  warbling  to  heaven's  gate.  The  goldfinch  or 
thistlefinch  passes  much  of  its  time  among  flow- 
ers, and  is  vividly  colored  accordingly.  The 
partridge  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from  the 
fallow  or  stubble  upon  or  among  which  it  crouch- 
es, and  it  is  considered  an  accomplishment  among 
sportsmen  to  have  a  good  eye  for  finding  a  hare 
sitting.  In  northern  countries  the  winter  dress 
of  the  hares  and  ptarmigans  is  white,  to  prevent 
detection  among  the  snows  of  those  inclement 
regions. 

If  we  turn  to  the  waters,  the  same  design  is 
evident.  Frogs  even  vary  their  color  according 
to  that  of  the  mud  or  sand  that  forms  the  bottom 
of  the  ponds  or  streams  which  they  frequent — 
nay,  the  tree-frog  (Hyla  viridis)  takes  its  specific 
name  from  the  color,  which  renders  it  so  difficult 
to  see  it  among  the  leaves,  where  it  adheres  by 
the  cupping-glass-like  processes  at  the  end  of  its 
toes.  It  is  the  same  with  fish,  especially  those 
which  inhabit  the  fresh  waters.  Their  backs, 
with  the  exception  of  gold  and  silver  fish,  and  a 
few  others,  are  comparatively  dark ;  and  some 
practice  is  required  before  they  are  satisfactorily 
made  out,  as  they  come  like  shadows  and  so 
depart  under  the  eye  of  the  spectator.  A  little 
boy  once  called  out  to  a  friend  to  "  come  and  see, 
for  the  bottom  of  the  brook  was  moving  along." 
The  friend  came,  and  saw  that  a  thick  shoal  of 
gudgeons,  and  roach,  and  dace,  was  passing.  It  is 
difficult  to  detect  the  "  ravenous  luce,"  as  old  Izaak 
calls  the  pike,  with  its  dark  green  and  mottled 
back  and  sides,  from  the  similarly  tinted  weeds 
among  which  the  fresh-water  shark  lies  at  the 
watch,  as  motionless  as  they.  Even  when  a  tear- 
ing old  trout,  a  six  or  seven-pounder,  sails,  in  his 
wantonness,  leisurely  up  stream,  with  his  back-fin 
partly  above  the  surface,  on  the  look-out  for  a  fly, 
few,  except  a  well-entered  fisherman,  can  tell 
what  shadowy  form  it  is  that  ripples  the  wimpling 
water.  But  the  bellies  of  fish  are  white,  or 
nearly  so  ;  thus  imitating  in  a  degree  the  color 
of  the  sky,  to  deceive  the  otter,  which  generally 
takes  its  prey  from  below,  swimming  under  the 
intended  victim.  Nor  is  this  design  less  manifest 
in  the  color  and  appearance  of  some  of  the  larger 


terrestrial  animals  ;  for  the  same  principle  seems 
to  be*  kept  in  view,  whether  regard  be  had  to  the 
smallest  insects  or  the  quadrupedal  giants  of  the 
land. 

I  have  often  traced  (writes  an  excellent  observer) 
a  remarkable  resemblance  between  the  animal  and 
the  general  appearance  of  the  locality  in  which  it 
is  found.  This  I  first  remarked  at  an  early  period 
of  my  life,  when  entomology  occupied  a  part  of  my 
attention.  No  person  following  this  interesting 
pursuit  can  fail  to  observe  the  extraordinary  like- 
ness which  insects  bear  to  the  various  abodes  in 
which  they  are  met  with.  Thus  among  the  long 
green  grass  we  find  a  variety  of  long  green  insects, 
whose  legs  and  antennae  so  resemble  the  shoots 
emanating  from  the  stalks  of  the  grass,  that  it 
requires  a  practised  eye  to  distinguisli  them. 
Throughout  sandy  districts,  varieties  of  insects  are 
met  with  of  a  color  similar  to  the  sand  which  they 
inhabit.  Among  the  green  leaves  of  the  various 
trees  of  the  forest  innumerable  leaf-colored  insects 
are  to  be  found  ;  while,  closely  adhering  to  the 
rough,  gray  bark  of  these  forest-trees,  we  observe 
beautifully-colored,  gray-looking  moths,  of  various 
patterns,  yet  altogether  so  resembling  the  bark  a.- 
to  be  invisible  to  the  passing  observer.  In  likr 
manner,  among  quadrupeds,  I  have  traced  a  con 
siderable  analogy  ;  for,  even  in  the  case  of  the  stu 
pendous  elephant,  the  ashy  color  of  his  hide  &» 
corresponds  with  the  general  appearance  of  ths 
gray  thorny  jungles  which  he  frequents  throughout 
the  day,  that  a  person  unaccustomed  to  hunting 
elephants,  standing  on  a  commanding  situation, 
might  look  down  upon  a  herd  and  fail  to  detect 
their  presence.  And  further,  in  the  case  of  the 
giraffe,  which  is  invariably  met  with  among  ven- 
erable forests,  where  innumerable  blasted  and 
weatherbeaten  trunks  and  stems  occur,  I  have  re- 
peatedly been  in  doubt  as  to  the  presence  of  a  troop 
of  them,  until  I  had  recourse  to  my  spy-glass ; 
and,  on  referring  the  case  to  my  savage  attendants, 
I  have  known  even  their  optics  to  fail — at  one  time 
mistaking  their  dilapidated  trunks  for  camelopards, 
and  again  confounding  real  camelopards  with  thoso 
aged  veterans  of  the  forest.* 

The  Wizard  of  the  North,  who  had  a  keen  eye 
for  the  harmonies  of  Nature — and  what  poet,  who 
is  fond  of  field-sports,  has  not  1 — frequently  mani- 
fests the  results  of  his  observation  on  animals  and 
their  haunts  in  his  immortalities,  whether  of  verse 
or  prose. 

So  far  was  heard  the  mighty  knell 
The  stag  sprung  up  on  Cheviot  Fell, 
Spread  his  broad  nostril  to  the  wind, 
Listed  before,  aside,  behind, 
Then  couched  him  down  beside  the  hind, 
And  q-iaked  among  the  mountain  fern, 
To  hear  that  sound  so  dull  and  stern. 

When  a  stag  lies  with  his  neck  stretched  out 
and  his  horns  lying  backward  in  such  a  lair,  or 
among  other  low  cover,  none  but  a  very  experi- 
enced stalker  is  likely  to  detect  him. 

I  remember,  one  very  hard  winter,  passing  more 
than  once,  in  beating  over  a  fallow  field,  what  I 
at  first  took  for  a  clod,  but  which  proved  to  be  a 
partridge  frozen  to  death.  As  for  the  young  of 
many  birds  who  make  their  nests  on  the  ground, 

*  A  Hunter's  Life  in  South  Africa*  By  Roualeyn 
Gordon  Gumming,  Esq. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


77 


their  colors  so  closely  resemble  the  localities  in 
which  they  are  found,  that  they  are  hardly  to  be 
observed  by  any  but  a  very  keen  eye.  Thus 
White,  writing  of  the  stone-curlew,  (Charadrius 
csdicnemus,)  remarks,  that  the  bird  lays  its  eggs — 
usually  two,  never  more  than  three — on  the  bare 
ground,  without  any  protection,  so  that  the  coun- 
tryman in  stirring  his  fallows  often  destroys 
them. 

The  young  (he  adds)  run  immediately  from  the 
egg  like  partridges,  &c. ;  and  are  withdrawn  to 
some  flinty  field  by  the  dam,  where  they  skulk 
among  the  stones,  which  are  their  best  security ; 
for  their  feathers  are  so  exactly  of  the  color  of  our 
gray-spotted  flints,  that  the  most  exact  observer, 
unless  he  catches  the  eye  of  the  young  bird,  may 
be  eluded.* 

The  similarity  of  color  to  that  of  their  haunts, 
combined  with  the  motionless  habit  above  alluded 
to,  serves,  then,  in  the  case  of  the  reptiles,  the 
double  purpose  of  concealment  for  safety  and  lying 
in  wait  for  prey,  so  as  to  give  the  victim  the  least 
possible  warning.  Few  can  see  the  snake  in  the 
grass,  and  the  frogs  on  which  it  dines  least  of  all. 
The  sportsman  treads  on  the  viper,  coiled  up  on  a 
bright  windy  day  at  the  edge  of  the  copse,  before 
he  is  aware  of  the  presence  of  the  reptile  ;  and  so 
does  his  dog,  unless  he  is  shooting  with  a  pointer, 
which,  if  he  have  a  good  nose  and  the  wind,  will 
infallibly  stand  as  stiff  as  a  crutch,  and  as  if  he 
had  a  whole  covey  before  him. 

The  ink  that  traced  the  last  sentence  on  the 
paper  was  hardly  dry  when  in  came  a  friend,  who 
related  that  two  of  his  dogs,  pointers,  had  been 
bitten  by  a  viper,  that  lay  coiled  up  in  the  grass 
by  the  banks  of  a  canal  near  the  house  in  which  I 
write.  The  serpent  struck  twice,  and  each  time 
bit  the  dog  attacked  on  the  lip.  The  dog  first 
struck — a  very  fine  pointer,  with  a  dash  of  the 
bloodhound  in  him — staggered,  was  frightfully 
•swollen,  and  his  system  so  much  affected  that 
fears  were  entertained  for  his  life.  Copious  doses 
of  oil,  and  embrocations  of  the  same  with  laud- 
anum, however,  effected  the  cure.  The  mother 
of  this  dog  received  the  second  bite,  but  in  her 
case  the  symptoms  were  much  mitigated ;  there 
was  no  staggering,  and,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases, 
the  virus  must  have  been  much  diminished  before 
the  second  wound  was  given.  The  viper,  on  this 
occasion,  corroborated  the  statements  of  those  who 
lay  it  down  as  an  axiom  that  the  true  vipers,  un- 
like other  venomous  serpents — the  cobra,  for  in- 
stance— do  not  quit  the  scene  of  action  after  their 
murderous  attacks.  There  it  remained,  and  the 
master  of  the  dogs  took  up  a  great  stone  and  cast 
it  upon  the  viper,  without,  however,  crippling  it, 
owing,  probably,  to  some  inequality  in  the  surface 
of  the  ground  whereon  it  rested.  Then,  but  not 
till  then,  it  made  off.  The  owner  of  the  dogs  told 
me,  that  when  they  were  bitten  they  uttered  no 
cry.  In  general,  they  howl  piteously  when  they 
feel  the  bite. 


*  Selborne. 


Letter  XVI. 
6 


In  this  case  we  have  again  an  instance  of  the 
virtues  of  oil,  insisted  on  in  a  former  chapter. 
Cato's  remedy  was  not  so  simple,  for  he  says, 
(c.  102,)  that  if  a  serpent  has  stung  an  ox  or  any 
other  quadruped,  one  must  pound  an  acetabulum 
of  melanthion,  called  by  the  physicians  melanthion 
of  Smyrna,  in  an  hcmina  of  old  wine,  pour  it  into 
the  nostrils  of  the  beast,  and  lay  hogs'  dung  to  the 
wound.  Nor  is  the  savory  remedy  applicable  to 
the  restoration  of  brutes  only,  according  to  his 
experience ;  for  he  confidently  directs  the  same 
remedy  to  be  applied  to  a  human  creature,  if  oc- 
casion require  it.  One  may  conceive  the  sort  of 
reward  reaped  by  the  bubulcus  by  whose  neglect 
the  ox  was  exposed  to  the  venomous  bite,  when 
the  former  was  subjected  to  the  tender  mercies  of 
the  ergastularius  in  the  prison*  of  the  villa,  under 
a  dispensation  which  placed  the  life  of  the  slave 
absolutely  at  the  disposal  of  his  master. 

In  that  part  of  The  Way  to  get  Wealth  f  inti- 
tuled "  The  English  House-wife,"  dedicated  to 
"  The  Right  Honorable  and  most  excellent  Lady, 
Francis,  Countesse  Dowager  of  Exeter,"  with  the 
running  title  of  "  The  English  House-wives 
Houshold  Physick,"  we  find  a  different  formula 
set  forth : — 

To  help  all  manner  of  swelling  or  aches  in  what 
part  of  the  body  soever  it  be,  or  stinging  of  any 
venomous  beast,  as  Adder,  Snake,  or  such-like, 
take  Horehound,  Smallage,  Porrets,  smal  Mallows, 
and  wild  Tansey  of  each  alike  quantity,  and  bruise 
them  or  cut  them  small ;  then  seeth  them  altogether 
in  a  pan  with  milk,  oatmeal,  and  as  much  Sheepa 
suet,  or  Dearessuet  as  a  Hens  egge,  and  let  it  boyl 
till  it  be  a  thick  plaister,  then  lay  it  upon  a  blew 
wollen  cloath,  and  lay  it  tq  the  griefe  as  hot  as  one 
can  suffer  it. 

In  the  section  of  the  same  choice  book  headed 
"  Country  Contentments,"  we  find  it  thus  writ* 
ten  : — 

If  your  dogge  have  been  bitten  by  either  Snake, 
Adder  or  any  other  venomous  thing,  take  the  hearb 
Calamint,  and  beat  it  in  a  morter  with  Turpentine 
and  yellow  Waxe,  till  it  come  to  a  Salve,  and  then 
apply  it  to  the  sore  and  it  will  heal  it.  Also  if  yoa 
boile  the  herb  in  milke,  and  give  the  dogge  it  to 
drink,  it  will  expell  all  inward  poison. 

In  the  "  Table  of  Hard  Words,"  it  is  stated  that 
"  Calamint  is  an  ordinary  hearb,  and  groweth  by 
ditches  sides,  by  high  waies,  and  sometimes  la. 
gardens." 

For  "  The  Generall  Cure  of  all  Cattell,"  w» 
read  in  chapter  69,  which  treats  "  Of  venomous 
wounds,  as  biting  with  a  mad  dogge,  tusks  of 
Bores,  Serpents  or  such  like,"  in  the  case  of  the 
horse,  as  follows  : — 

For  any  of  these  mortall  or  venomous  wounds, 
take  Yarrow,  Calamint,  and  the  grains  of  wheat, 
and  beat  them  in  a  morter  with  water  of  Sothern- 
wood,  and  make  it  into  a  salve,  and  lay  it  to  the 
sore,  and  it  will  heale  it  safely. 

*  Ergastulum,  where  the  slaves  were  confined,  bound 
or  chained  together,  when  they  came  from  work,  lest  they 
should  make  their  escape  in  the  night. 

t  Small  4to.    London,  1657. 


78 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


But  in  the  case  of  "  The  Oxe,  Cow,  etc." — 

If  your  beast  be  bitten  with  a  mad  Dog,  or  anj 
other  venomous  beast,  you  shall  take  Plaintain  anc 
beat  it  in  a  morter  with  Bolearrnoniacke,  Sanguis 
Draconis,  Early  meale,  and  the  whites  of  Egs,  anc 
playster-wise  lay  it  to  the  sore,  renewing  it  once  in 
fourteen  hours. 

Most  of  these  simple  remedies — except  in  the 
case  of  the  "  mad  dog" — were,  doubtless,  founc 
efficacious  in  these  fortunate  islands,  where  the 
only  venomous  serpent  is  the  viper  and  its  varie- 
ties, and  the  harmless  common  snake  throws  its 
enamelled  skin  among  those  beautiful  wild  flowers, 
whose  dewy  blossoms  bring  back  to  the  mind's 
eye  the  images  of  the  dear  ones  now  gone  to  re- 
ceive their  reward  in  heaven,  who  were  wont  to 
gaze  lovingly  with  us  upon  those  stars  of  the 
earth  long,  long  ago. 

But  we  must  go  back  to  our  reptile-house, 
where  the  murderous  cobra,  the  deadly  cerastes, 
the  fatal  puff-adder,*  and  the  lethal  rattlesnakes 
remind  us  of  the  danger  that  lurks  in  paths  made 
<lovely  by  all  the  floral  prodigality  of  warmer 

•  climates.     There,  too,  are  the  giant  forms  of  the 
'boas  and  pythons,  which,  deprived  of  the  stiletto 
•of  the  smaller  snakes,  are  recompensed  with  an 
herculean  power  of  gripe  that  would  make  the 
ribs  of  an  Antaeus  crack  like  pistol-shots,  as  they 
broke  under  the  pressure  of  the  mortal  constric- 
tion. 

Before  we  enter  into  a  particular  account  of 
these  forms  let  us  inquire  what  a  reptile  is. 

In  common  parlance  the  word  would  signify  any 
creature  that  creeps  ;  but,  in  the  language  of  zoolo- 
gists, it  is  used  to  designate  those  vertebrated  ani- 
mals, whether  quadruped,  biped,  or  footless,  that 
are  either  oviparous  or  ovoviviparous,  breathe  by 
means  of  lungs  for  the  most  part,  are  destitute  of 
hair  and  feathers,  and  are  without  mammae. 

Their  organization,  although  designed  after  the 

•  one  great  law  which  is  manifested  throughout  the 
vertebrata,  is  more  variously  modified  than  that  of 
any  other  class  of  that  division  of  animals.      If 
we  examine  the  mammalia  we  find  them  formed 
after  one  leading  type.     From  man  to  a  marmoset, 
from  a  lion  to  a  cat,  from  an  elephant  to  a  mouse, 
from  a  whale  to  the  smallest  cetacean  that  swims, 
the   same    plan    of    construction    is    manifested. 
Among   the  feathered  race,  from  an  eagle  to  a 
humming-bird,  from  a  dinornis  to  an  apteryx,  we 
.recognize  an  adherence  to  one-settled  principle  of 
conformation.     It  is  the  same  with  fishes.     But 
among  the  reptiles,  a  wide  and  extensive  difference 
in  the  types  or  principles  of  structure  must  in- 
stantly strike  the  most  superficial  observer.     A 
tortoise  and  a  snake  are  both  reptiles,  zoologically 
speaking.      Look  at  these   animals   alive,  or  ex- 
amine their  skeletons,  and  a  glance  shows  you  the 
wide  difference  of  conformation  displayed  in  the 
two  forms.      But  without  selecting  types  so  obvi- 
ously distant,  we  shall  find  similar  discrepancies, 
external  and  internal,  in  this  extensive  class,  and 

*  Clotho  arietans. 


that   even   among    the    more    cognate    reptilians. 

Take  a  crocodile,  an  ichthyosaurus,  or  a  plesio- 
saurus,  place  it  by  the  side  of  a  chameleon,  and 
you  will  soon  see,  even  with  an  unpractised  eye, 
how  different  their  osseous  systems  are.  The  dis- 
crepancy will  be  heightened  if  you  add  the  skele- 
ton of  a  toad  or  a  frog  to  the  group. 

If  we  descend  to  detail,  the  anomaly  is  still 
greater.  A  tortoise  is  toothless  ;  a  saurian  (lizard) 
— take  a  crocodile,  for  example— is  well  furnished 
with  implanted  teeth.  Both,  however,  are  quad- 
rupedal, both  have  a  heart  with  two  auricles, 
both  lay  eggs  with  a  solid  calcareous  shell,  and 
the  young  of  both  are  hatched  in  the  form  which 
they  retain  through  life  without  undergoing  any 
metamorphosis.  A  serpent  or  ophidian  is  foot- 
less, but  has  a  multitude  of  well-developed  arched 
ribs.  Those  which  are  not  ovoviviparous  lay 
eggs  with  a  soft  though  calcareous  covering,  but 
their  young  come  into  the  world  in  the  same 
shape  as  that  borne  by  their  parents.  A  frog  or 
batrachian  has  no  ribs,  or  is  possessed  of  the  rudi- 
ments of  those  bones  only,  and  has  a  naked  skin 
destitute  of  scales.  The  eggs  are  gelatinous, 
and  laid  in  water.  When  the  young  are  first 
hatched  they  differ  from  their  parents,  and  ans 
furnished  with  branchiae  or  gills,  which,  except  in 
the  perennibranchiate  batrachians — Proteus,  Axo 
lotl,  and  Siren,  for  example — drop  off  as  the  ani 
mal  arrives  at  its  ultimate  form.  The  metamor 
jhosis  of  the  anurous  batrachians — those  which, 
in  their  perfect  state,  are  tailless — may  be  ob- 
served every  spring  by  watching  the  development 
of  the  eggs  of  the  common  frog,  of  which  Swam 
merdam  counted  1400  as  the  production  of  om. 
female.  The  greenish  albumen  of  these  eggsi 
does  not  coagulate  easily,  and  the  yolk  or  vitellus 
s  absorbed  by  the  embryo.  In  the  first  stage  of 
ts  existence  the  tadpole,  or  tetard  as  the  French 
erm  it,  has  a  somewhat  elongated  body,  a  tail 
compressed  at  the  sides,  and  external  gills.  Its 
ninute  mouth  is  armed  with  small  hooks  or  teeth, 

hich  it  plies  vigorously  upon  the  aquatic  vegeta- 
iles  which  then  form  its  food ;  and  on  the  lower 
ip  is  a  small  tubular  process,  by  means  of  which 
t  adheres  to  the  water-plants  when  taking  its  rest, 
n  the  next  stage  the  external  gills  disappear, 
>ecoming  covered  by  a  membrane,  and  the  tad- 
3ole  then  breathes  like  a  fish.  The  head,  pro- 
ided  with  eyes  and  nostrils,  has  no  neck,  but  is 
)ne  with  the  now  globular  trunk,  largely  distended 
iy  the  extensive  digestive  canal  ;  and  the  large 
ail  enables  the  animal  to  swim  well  and  strongly, 
n  a  short  time  the  hind  legs  show  themselves 
icar  the  setting  on  of  the  tail,  and  are  soon  devel- 
iped.  Then  the  anterior  feet  are  protruded  ;  and 
as  the  limbs  advance,  the  tail  gradually  lessens 
and  shortens,  shrinking  till  it  entirely  disappears. 
The  mouth  now  becomes  wider  and  loses  the 
horny,  hook-like  appendages,  the  head  stands  out 
more  from  the  body,  and  the  eyes  are  furnished 
vith  lids.  The  belly  becomes  more  elongated, 
•ut  is  diminished  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the 
nimal,  and  the  intestines  lose  much  of  their 


//*- 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


79 


length.  The  true  lungs  begin  to  be  formed  ;  and, 
as  they  advance,  the  internal  gills  are  gradually 
obliterated.  Thus  the  whole  circulation  is  altered, 
and  the  young  frog  quits  the  water,  exchanging 
its  entirely  aquatic  and  herbivorous  life  for  a  car- 
nivorous, and,  for  the  most  part,  terrestrial  exist- 
ence. These  metamorphoses,  which  rfval  those 
of  the  insects,  may  bs  seen  on  a  grander  scale  in 
the  Eana  paradoxa. 

The  serpents  have  two  auricles,  but  the  batr?,- 
chians  have,  strictly  speaking,  only  one,  but  it  is 
separated  in'ernally  into  two  chambers. 

One  worjr:  more  on  the  discrepancies  of  reptile 
organization,  and  we  will  cease  to  pursue  an  in- 
quiry which  would  be  followed  out  with  more 
aptitude  in  a  work  more  conversant  with  compara- 
tive anatomy  than  this  can  pretend  to  be ;  but  the 
general  reader,  as  well  as  the  student,  should  keep 
those  discrepancies  steadily  in  view.  The  obser- 
vations, however,  shall  be  confined  to  the  varying 
skeletons. 

Take  the  cranium  of  a  crocodile.  A  more 
solid,  bony  mass,  you  could  hardly  see.  Now 
turn  to  that  of  a  boa.  The  skull,  you  see,  is 
made  up  of  a  considerable  number  of  pieces,  all 
admirably  fitted  and  joined  together,  but  with  such 
an  adaptation  as  easily  to  admit  of  separation. 
Why  is  this  ?  The  long  head  and  widely  exten- 
sive jaws  of  the  crocodile  enable  it  to  secure  and 
take  into  the  stomach  a  comparatively  large  prey. 
But  the  serpent  frequently  has  to  master  and  swal- 
low an  animal  utterly  disproportioned  to  the  usual 
gape  of  the  mouth ;  the  skull  is,  therefore,  so 
framed  as  easily  to  admit  of  partial  dislocation,  so 
that  it  may  aid  the  dilatation  of  the  jaws  and 
throat,  and  facilitate  deglutition.  The  ribs  in  the 
frogs,  as  before  observed,  are  almost  null ;  in  the 
serpents  they  are  so  lavishly  developed  and  so 
freely  articulated  that  they  i  re  used  as  organs  of 
motion.  In  the  tortoises  tl  iy  are  implanted  and 
incorporated  with  the  rest  (  '.  the  canapace.  The 
ribs  of  the  serpent  ma?  V-  compared  to  the  legs 
of  a  millipede  situa'e'l  internally,  and  operating 
externally  principp'Jy  by  acting  on  the  scutes  of 
the  belly  on  which  it  creeps.  Some  reptiles  have 
not  only  a  trnr  breast-bone,  but  also  an  addition, 
which  has  Leon  termed  an  abdominal  sternum. 
This  may  be  seen  in  the  crocodiles,  and  seems  to 
be  produced  !>y  the  ossification  of  the  tendons  of 
the  recti  muscles.  But  while  some  have  two 
sterna,  others  have  none  at  all.  The  chameleon, 
for  instance,  though  the  ribs  are  well  formed,  has 
no  breast-bone.  The  tortoise,  and  the  majority  of 
saurians,  are  gifted  with  four  sufficiently  well- 
developed  extremities.  Chirotes  and  bipes  have 
only  two  ;  the  former  an  anterior  pair,  the  latter 
a  posterior  pair,  and  those  but  poorly  framed. 

But  though  these  and  other  great  differences  of 
organization  are  patem  among  the  reptiles,  every 
bone  of  every  reptile  is  marked  with  such  pecu- 
liarity of  character  as  to  indicate  at  once  the  clas; 
to  which  it  belongs.  A  skilful  comparative  anat- 
omist can  never  mistake  such  a  bone  for  that  of 
any  other  race  of  animals.  Professor  Owen  and 


other  palaeontologists  have  largely  profited  by 
their  knowledge  of  this  peculiarity,  as  appears 
from  the  great  and  admirable  work  on  British  fossil 
reptiles  by  the  professor,  now  in  the  course  of 
publication.* 

From  the  great  difference  in  the  organization 
of  this  class,  a  great  variety  of  motility  was  to  be 
xpected  : 

The  motion  of  reptiles  is  as  various  as  their 
structure,  and  exhibits  a  great  diversity,  particu- 
larly in  the  modes  of  progression.  The  slow 
march  of  the  land  tortoises,  the  paddling  of  the  tur- 
tles, the  swimming  and  walking  of  the  crocodiles, 
the  newts,  and  the  protei,  the  agility  of  the  lizards, 
the  rapid  serpentine  advance  of  the  snakes,  the 
leaping  of  the  frogs,  offer  a  widely-extended  scale 
of  motion.  If  we  add  the  vaulting  of  the  dragons, 
and  the  flying  of  the  pterodactyles,  there  is  hardly 
any  mode  of  animal  progression  which  is  not  to  be 
found  among  the  reptiles. f 

When  we  examine  the  different  systems  pub- 
lished by  zoologists  with  reference  to  the  reptiles, 
we  find,  with  few  exceptions,  the  first  place  as- 
signed to  the  chelonians  or  tortoises  ;  and,  before 
we  proceed  to  notice  the  other  forms,  let  us  rapid- 
ly survey  this  highly-interesting  order. 

The  land-tortoises  first  claim  attention. 

28th  July. — I  went  to  see  the  great  tortoise 
(Testudo  elephantopus)  presented  by  the  queen  to 
the  Zoological  Society  of  London,  and  arrived  at 
the  garden  in  the  Regent's  Park  between  nine  and 
ten  o'clock.  The  morning  had  been  rainy,  but 
the  sun  bravely  struggled  through  the  clouds 
which  cleared  away  before  his  radiant  presence, 
as  the  story-book  has  it,  and  I  saw  the  venerable 
reptile  in  its  paddock  before  the  newly-erected  hut 
built  for  its  reception  near  the  otters'  pond.  It  is 
the  largest  I  ever  beheld.  The  ancient  seemed  to 
be  in  a  dreamy  kind  of  doze,  -with  its  head  tucked 
into  its  shell,  which  glittered — still  moist  with 
the  rain  that  had  fallen — in  the  sunbeams — a  shell 
fit  to  make  a  lyre  for  Polypheme,  if  he  had  been 
inclined  to  try  his  hand  when  tired  of  the  hundred 
reeds  of  decent  growth  that  made  a  pipe  for  his 
capacious  mouth.  Though  the  weather  had  been 
very  wet  since  its  arrival  a  day  or  two  previously, 
it  did  not  seem  to  have  availed  itself  of  the  shelter 
of  its  hut.  Another  comparatively  small  land- 
tortoise  was  also  in  the  enclosure  near  a  corner, 
but  entirely  exposed  to  the  weather.  One  colos- 
sal anterior  foot  of  the  dozing  giant  rested  on  its 
sole ;  its  fellow  was  carelessly  lying  on  its  side. 
The  soles  of  both  the  hind  feet  were  on  the  turf. 
I  scratched  the  sole  of  the  anterior  foot,  which 
was  exposed,  and  then  the  head.  The  sleeper 
was  awakened,  and  put  forth  its  long,  serpentine 
neck,  opened  one  eye  very  deliberately,  and  then 
the  other  as  lazily,  gave  a  gasp  or  two,  withdrew 
the  head,  and  then  again  protruded  it.  Cabbages, 
lettuces,  and  vegetable  marrows,  the  latter  equal- 
ling in  tempting  appearance  those  which  the  mad 

*  A  History  of  British  Fossil  Reptiles.  By  Richard 
Owen,  F.R.S.,  &c.  4to.  London:  Printed  for  the  Au- 
thor. 

t  Penny  Cyclopedia,  vol.  xix.,  p.  410. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


gentleman  placed  upon  the  top  of  Mrs.  Nickleby's 
wall,  or  projected  into  her  garden,  lay  scattered 
in  profusion  around.  In  many  of  these  the 
trenchant  bill  of  the  reptile  had  made  incision  ; 
and,  as  they  had  forgotten  to  provide  the  royal 
guest  with  a  napkin,  fragments  of  the  last  meal 
remained  hanging  about  its  horny  lips.  Large  as 
the  creature  is,  one  may  easily  conceive  the  dis- 
appointment of  the  spectator  who  first  sees  it  at 
rest.  When  it  is  in  motion,  and  the  huge  body  is 
raised  on  the  pillar-like  legs,  it  is  a  much  more 
striking  object.  Professor  Owen  had  been  sum- 
moned to  Buckingham  Palace  to  see  it  before  its 
removal  to  the  garden  in  the  Regent's  Park,  by 
the  gracious  direction  of  her  majesty,  and,  in  the 
presence  of  Prince  Albert,  proceeded  to  take  the 
dimensions  of  the  girth  of  the  animal.  To  do 
this  more  effectually,  he  bestrode  the  reposing 
mass.  While  thus  employed,  the  tortoise,  who 
probably 

Never  in  that  sort 

Had  handled  been  before, 
What  thing  upon  his  back  had  got 

Did  wonder  more  and  more  ; 

and  walked  off  with  the  professor,  to  the  great 
amusement  of  the  prince,  while  the  philosopher, 
as  he  rode  along,  calmly  continued  his  measure- 
ment, which  gave  twelve  feet  as  the  circumference 
of  this  fine  old  Galapagosian.  There  appears  to 
be  good  ground  for  believing  that  175  summers 
and  winters  have  passed  over  the  head  of  this 
doughty  devourer  of  vegetables  ;  and  there  is  no 
reason  for  coming  to  the  conclusion  that,  if  left 
undisturbed  in  its  native  wilds,  it  might  not  see  as 
many  more.  The  great  fossil  testudinates  of  the 
Himalaya  probably  attained  a  much  greater  age  ; 
and  when  we  consider  the  regularity  of  living, 
and  the  quiet  habits  of  the  tortoises,  the  enduring 
nature  of  their  organization,  and  their  great  tenac- 
ity of  life,  we  may  be  pardoned  if  we  hint  at  the 
probability  that,  under  favorable  circumstances, 
vitality  might  endure 

As  of  old  for  a  thousand  long  years. 

The  tortoises  have  no  teeth  to  lose,  no  irritable 
nervous  system  to  wear  out  the  durable  animated 
materials  encased  in  their  impenetrable  armor. 

Dampier  and  Mr.  Darwin  saw  these  enormous 
reptiles  in  their  native  haunts  on  the  islands  of 
the  Galapagos  Archipelago.  The  former  describes 
them  as  being  so  numerous,  that  500  or  600  men 
might  subsist  on  them  for  several  months  without 
any  other  provision  ;  adding,  that  they  are  extraor- 
dinarily large  and  fat,  and  that  no  pullet  is  bet- 
ter eating.  The  latter,  in  his  excellent  Journal, 
notices  their  numbers  as  being  very  great,  and 
states  his  belief  that  they  are  to  be  found  in  all 
the  islands  of  the  Archipelago.  In  his  walk 
among  the  little  craters  which  there  abound,  the 
glowing  heat  of  the  day,  the  rough  surface  of  the 
ground,  and  the  intricate  thickets,  produced  great 
fatigue  ;  but,  with  the  true  spirit  of  a  naturalist, 
he  says  that  he  was  well  repaid  by  the  Cyclopian 
scene.  He  met  two  large  tortoises,  each  of  which 
must  have  weighed  at  least  200  pounds.  One 


was  eating  a  piece  of  cactus  ;  and  when  Mr.  Dar- 
win approached,  it  looked  at  him,  and  then  quietly 
walked  away ;  the  other  gave  a  deep  hiss,  and 
drew  in  his  head.  Those  huge  reptiles,  sur- 
rounded by  the  black  lava  and  large  cacti,  ap- 
peared to  his  fancy  like  some  antediluvian  animals. 
Mr.  Darwin  was  informed  by  Mr.  Lawson,  an 
Englishman,  who,  at  the  time  of  his  visit,  had 
charge  of  the  colony,  that  he  had  seen  several  so 
large  that  it  required  six  or  eight  men  to  lift  them 
from  the  ground,  and  that  some  had  yielded  as 
much  as  200  pounds  of  meat.  The  old  males, 
readily  distinguished  by  the  greater  length  of  their 
tails — for  that  appendage  is  always  longer  in  the 
male  than  in  the  female — are  the  largest,  the  fe- 
males rarely  growing  to  so  great  a  size.  They 
prefer  the  high,  damp  parts  of  the  islands,  but 
also  inhabit  the  lower  and  arid  districts.  Those 
that  live  in  the  islands  where  there  is  no  water, 
or  in  the  arid  parts  of  the  others,  feed  chiefly  on 
the  cactus,  whose  succulent  nature  compensates 
for  the  want  of  liquid.  But  those  which  frequent 
the  higher  and  moist  regions,  revel  in  a  diet  of  the 
leaves  of  various  trees,  a  kind  of  acid,  austere 
berry,  called  guayavita ;  and  a  pale  green  fila- 
mentous lichen,  hanging  in  tresses  from  the 
boughs  of  trees.  It  must  not,  however,  be  con- 
cluded that  these  tortoises  do  not  care  about 
water  ;  for  Mr.  Darwin  tells  us  that  they  are  very 
fond  of  it,  drinking  large  quantities  when  they 
can  get  it,  and  wallowing  in  the  mud  when  they 
find  it.  The  larger  islands  alone,  it  appears, 
possess  springs,  which  are  always  situated  towards 
the  central  parts,  and  at  a  considerable  elevation. 
The  tortoises  which  frequent  the  lower  districts 
are  therefore  obliged,  when  thirsty,  to  travel  from 
a  long  distance.  Broad  and  well-beaten  paths, 
the  result  of  these  travels,  radiate  off  in  every 
direction  from  the  wells,  even  down  to  the  sea- 
coast.  This  was  not  lost  upon  the  Spaniards, 
who  followed  them  up,  and  so  discovered  the 
watering-places.  When  Mr.  Darwin  landed  at 
Chatham  Island  he  could  not  imagine  what  animal 
travelled  so  methodically  along  the  well-chosen 
tracks.  Near  the  springs  it  was  a  curious  spec- 
tacle, he  observes,  to  behold  many  of  these  great 
monsters,  one  set  eagerly  travelling  onwards,  with 
outstretched  necks,  and  another  set  returning,  after 
having  drunk  their  fill.  He  remarked  that,  when 
the  tortoise  arrives  at  the  spring,  it  buries  its 
head  in  the  water  above  the  eyes,  quite  regardless 
of  any  spectator,  and  greedily  swallows  great 
mouthsful,  at  the  rate  of  about  ten  in  a  minute. 
According  to  Mr.  Darwin,  the  inhabitants  say  that 
each  visitor  stays  three  or  four  days  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  water,  and  then  returns  to  the 
lower  country  ;  but  they  differed  in  their  accounts 
respecting  the  frequency  of  those  visits.  Mr. 
Darwin  thinks  that  the  animal  probably  regulates 
them  according  to  the  nature  of  the  food  which  it 
has  consumed ;  but  he  observes  that  it  is  certain 
that  tortoises  can  subsist,  even  on  those  islands, 
where  there  is  no  other  water  than  what  falls  dur- 
ing a  few  rainy  days  in  the  year.  The  rate  of 


LEAxfE.     FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF   A   NATURALIST. 


travelling  m  tne  visits  to  the  springs,  or  when 
going  to  any  definite  point,  is  said  by  those  who 
have  come  to  their  conclusion  from  observations 
on  marked  individuals,  to  be  about  eight  miles  in 
two  or  three  days,  and  they  continue  to  move  on- 
wards both  by  night  and  by  day.  Mr.  Darwin 
watcned  one  large  tortoise,  and  found  that  it 
walked  at  the  rate  of  sixty  yards  in  ten  minutes ; 
that  is,  3GO  in  the  hour,  or  four  miles  a-day, 
allowing  a  little  time  for  it  to  eat  on  the  road. 

The  love-pranks  of  the  male  are  continued  with 
a  deliberation  worthy  of  a  creature  whose  motions 
in  excavating  the  earth  for  hybernation  are  so 
ridiculously  slow,  that  White  describes  the  move- 
ment of  the  legs,  when  so  employed,  as  little 
exceeding  that  of  the  hour-hand  of  a  clock.  Mr. 
Darwin  relates  that  when  the  Galapagos  tortoise 
is  solus  cum  sold  he  utters  a  hoarse  roar  or 
bellowing,  which  can  be  heard  at  the  distance  of 
a  hundred  yards,  and  then  is  vocally  silent  for  the 
rest  of  the  year.  The  female,  it  is  said,  never 
makes  her  voice  heard,  if,  indeed,  she  have  one. 
The  white  spherical  eggs  are  laid  in  October,  the 
female  depositing  them  together  where  the  soil  is 
sandy,  and  covering  them  up  with  sand.  Where 
the  ground  is  rocky  she  drops  them  indiscrimi- 
nately in  any  hollow.  Seven  were  found  placed 
in  a  line  in  a  fissure.  One  measured  by  Mr. 
Darwin  was  seven  inches  and  three  eighths  in 
circumference.  As  soon  as  the  young  tortoises 
are  hatched  they  are  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  a 
buzzard,  which  has  the  habits  of  the  caracara,  and 
fall  a  prey  in  great  numbers  to  that  bird.  Acci- 
dents, such  as  falls  from  precipices,  seem  to  be 
the  principal  events  against  which  these  tortoises 
have  to  guard.  Several  of  the  inhabitants  told 
Mr.  Darwin  that  they  had  never  found  one  dead 
without  some  such  apparent  cause.  They  believe 
that  these  animals  are,  like  the  majority  of  Per- 
sian cats,  absolutely  deaf;  and  Mr.  Darwin 
declares  with  certainty  that  they  do  not  overhear 
a  person  walking  close  behind  them.  He  was 
amused,  when  overtaking  one  of  these  great  mon- 
sters, as  it  was  quietly  pacing  along,  to  see  how 
suddenly,  the  instant  he  passed,  it  would  draw  in 
its  head  and  legs,  and,  uttering  a  deep  hiss,  fall  to 
the  ground  with  a  heavy  sound,  as  if  struck  dead. 
He  frequently  got  on  their  backs,  and  then,  upon 
giving  a  few  raps  on  the  hinder  part  of  the  shell, 
they  would  rise  up  and  walk  away  ;  but  he  found 
it  very  difficult  to  keep  his  balance. 

The  flesh  of  these  tortoises  is  largely  consumed, 
both  fresh  and  salted.  It  is  not  unusual  to  collect 
them,  barrel  them  up  alive,  put  them  on  shipboard, 
and  take  them  out  as  they  are  wanted,  when  they 
do  not  appear  to  have  wasted  much  in  consequence 
of  their  fast.  From  the  fat  a  fine  clear  oil  is 
prepared ;  and  when  a  tortoise  is  caught,  the 
state  of  its  fatness  is  ascertained  by  a  very  sum- 
mary process,  which  must  be  more  satisfactory  to 
the  agent  than  the  patient.  The  captor  makes  a 
slit  with  a  knife  in  the  skin  near  the  animal's  tail, 
so  as  to  see  inside  its  body  whether  the  fat  under 
the  dorsal  plate  is  thick.  If  it  be  not  the  tortoise 


is  liberated  for  that  time,  walks  away,  and  soon 
recovers  so  as  to  be  none  the  worse  for  the  oper- 
ation. Those  who  follow  this  somewhat  trenchant 
course  of  experiment  are  soon  made  aware,  that  to 
secure  one  of  these  tortoises  it  is  not  sufficient  to 
turn  them  like  turtle  ;  for,  as  Mr.  Darwin  tells  us, 
they  are  often  able  to  regain  their  upright  position 
after  having  been  so  left  on  their  backs. 

In  America  people  have  an  odd  way  of  immor- 
talizing themselves,  and  leaving  intimations  to 
friends  and  succeeding  visitors  where  they  have 
been.  When  they  find  a  tortoise,  they  turn  it  up, 
cut  their  names  with  a  knife  on  the  investing 
horny  plates  of  the  plastron  or  ventral  portion  of 
the  shell,  and  then  setting  the  reptile  on  its  legs, 
give  the  walking  inscription  its  liberty. 

But  if  we  are  to  credit  ancient  legends,  our 
royal  tortoise  and  its  Galapagosian  brethren  must 
hide  their  diminished  heads.  De  Laet  avers  that 
they  grow  to  such  a  size  in  Cuba,  that  one  will 
carry  five  men  on  its  back,  and  walk  off  with 
them.  But  some  authors  never  like  to  be  outdone, 
and  the  writer  of  Thaumatographia,  who,  to  do 
him  justice,  is  a  most  industrious  collector  of 
marvellous  stories,  gives  us  one  on  the  authority 
of  Leo  that  throws  all  other  testudinarian  tales 
into  the  shade.  A  traveller  in  Africa,  weary  and 
way-sore  at  the  end  of  a  fatiguing  day,  aftei 
seeking  in  vain  for  shelter,  looked  about,  as  tht 
shades  of  evening  deepened,  for  some  insulatet 
rock  in  the  desert  on  which  he  might  repost* 
secure  from  the  fierce  or  poisonous  animals  tha» 
infested  those  dreary  wilds.  At  length,  just  a,. 
darkness  overtook  him,  he  saw  what  he  wanted, 
climbed  it,  found  a  good  flat  place  on  its  summit, 
lay  down,  and  soon  forgot  the  labors  of  the  pas. 
day  in  a  heavy  slumber,  from  which  he  awoke  no. 
till  the  sun  was  up,  and  then  he  found  that  hi. 
dormitory  had  been  moved  nearly  three  thousand 
paces  from  the  spot  where  he  had  laid  down. 
This  made  him  look  about  him,  when  he  dis- 
covered that  what  he  had  taken  for  a  rock  was  a 
tortoise,  that  had  gone  on  feeding  during  the  night, 
but  at  so  imperceptibly  slow  a  pace  that  the 
sleeper  was  not  aware  of  the  motion. 

The  great  Galapagos  tortoises  which  have 
hitherto  been  brought  to  this  country  have  never 
lived  long.  They  have  thriven  apparently  till 
the  time  of  hybernation  arrived,  and  then  have 
slept  never  to  wake  again.  The  returning  spring 
has  always  found  them  dead.  Whether  they  have 
not  the  means  of  properly  laying  themselves  up 
and  of  reposing  in  the  temperature  exactly  suited 
to  their  case,  or  have  been  fed  too  liberally  on 
lettuce,  which  acts  as  an  opiate  when  taken  in  any 
large  quantity,  are  questions  that  have  been  con- 
sidered, but  as  yet  have  not  been  satisfactorily 
answered.  Taking  into  the  account  their  usual 
diet  in  a  state  of  nature,  it  may  be  questioned 
whether  it  is  advisable  to  feed  these  gigantic  tor- 
toises so  much  on  lettuces.  The  quantity  of 
opium  which  must  find  its  way  into  the  system 
under  so  large  a  consumption  must  be  very  con- 
siderable ;  and  it  would  be  as  well  to  try  the 


82 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


effect  of  a  supply  of  other  succulent  vegetables, 
such  as  gourds  and  cabbages,  with,  a  fair  propor- 
tion of  lettuce.  And  yet  the  "  old  tortoise"  im- 
mortalized by  White  selected  milky  plants,  such 
as  lettuces,  dandelions,  and  sow-thistles,  as  its 
favorite  dish  ;  and  for  years  continued  to  retire 
under  ground  about  the  middle  of  November, 
coming  forth  again  about  the  middle  of  April.  Its 
age  was  not  known,  but  it  had  been  kept  for 
thirty  years  in  a  little  walled  court ;  and  in  a 
neighboring  village  one  was  kept  till  it  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  hundred  years  old.  The  tortoise 
introduced  into  the  garden  of  Lambeth  Palace  in 
the  time  of  Archbishop  Laud  continued  to  live 
there  till  the  year  1753,  and  its  death  was  then 
attributed  to  the  neglect  of  the  gardener  rather 
than  to  age.  The  author  of  Physico-theology,* 
to  whom  the  writers  of  modern  treatises  are  so 
largely  indebted,  saw  it  in  August,  1712,  "  in  my 
Lord  Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  garden,"  and 
speaks  of  it  as  having  been  there  since  the  time 
of  the  prelatef  who  smoothed  the  path  of  the 
royal  martyr  from  earth  to  heaven,  and  received, 
as  the  cold  complaining  eye  of  the  victim  was 
fixed  steadily  on  him,  the  mysterious  "  Remem- 
ber !"  from  his  dying  lips.  The  shell  of  this 
tortoise  was,  and  probably  is,  preserved  in  the 
library  of  the  palace  at  Lambeth. 

White's  tortoise — for  it  afterwards  became  his, 
to  the  evident  satisfaction  of  that  charming  natu- 
ralist and  excellent  man — when  it  first  appeared  in 
the  spring,  discovered  very  little  inclination 
towards  food,  but  in  the  height  of  summer  grew 
voracious.  As  the  summer  declined,  so  did  its 
appetite  ;  and  for  the  last  six  weeks  in  autumn  it 
hardly  ate  at  all.  Its  habits  seemed  to  have 
differed  widely  from  those  of  the  great  tortoises 
of  the  Galapagos.  They,  as  we  have  seen, 
delighted,  after  a  long  abstinence  probably,  to 
plunge  their  heads  into  the  water  and  to  wallow 
in  mud.  White's  tortoise  appears  to  have  lived 
in  positive  dread  of  the  element. 

No  part  of  its  behavior  (writes  White)  ever 
struck  me  more  than  the  extreme  timidity  it  always 
expresses  with  regard  to  rain  ;  and  though  it  has 
a  shell  that  would  secure  it  against  a  loaded  cart, 
yet  does  it  discover  as  much  solicitude  about  rain 
as  a  lady  dressed  in  all  her  best  attire,  shuffling 
away  on  the  first  sprinklings,  and  running  its  head 
up  in  a  corner.  If  attended  to,  it  becomes  an  ex- 
cellent weather-glass ;  for  as  sure  as  it  walks 
elate,  and  as  it  were  on  tiptoe,  feeding  with  great 
earnestness  in  the  morning,  so  sure  will  it  rain 
before  night. 

Darwin's  great  tortoises  marched  by  night  as 
well  as  by  day  in  their  walks  to  the  wells. 
White  describes  his  as  totally  a  diurnal  animal, 
and  never  pretending  to  stir  after  it  became  dark  ; 
and  yet  he  declares  that  nothing  could  be  more 
assiduous  than  the  creature,  night  and  day,  in 
scooping  the  earth  and  forcing  its  great  body  into 
the  cavity  intended  for  its  hybernaculum.  This, 
however,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  a  work  of 
*  Derham.  t  Juxon. 


necessity,  in  which  delay  would  have  been  dan- 
gerous. Beginning  its  excavation  on  the  first  of 
November,  it  had  no  time  to  lose,  with  the  biting 
frosts  close  at  hand  ;  and  if  it  had  been  overtaken 
by  them  it  would  have  suffered  even  more  than 
Captain  Dalgetty,  when  he  learned  the  rules  of  ser- 
vice so  tightly  under  old  Sir  Ludovick  Lesly  that 
he  was  not  likely  to  forget  them  in  a  hurry  : — 

Sir,  I  have  been  made  to  stand  guard  eight 
hours,  being  from  twelve  at  noon  to  eight  o'clock 
of  the  night,  at  the  palace,  armed  with  back  and 
breast,  head-piece,  and  bracelets — being  iron  to  the 
teeth,  in  a  bitter  frost,  and  the  ice  was  as  hard  as 
ever  was  flint ;  and  all  for  stopping  an  instant  'o 
speak  to  my  landlady,  when  I  should  have  gone  lo 
roll-call. 

White's  tortoise  was  careful  to  avoid  the  other 
extreme  of  temperature  : — 

Though  he  loves  warm  weather,  he  avoids  the 
hot  sun  ;  because  this  thick  shell,  when  once 
heated,  would,  as  the  poet  says  of  solid  armor, 
"  scald  with  safety."  He,  therefore,  spends  the 
more  sultry  hours  under  the  umbrella  of  a  large 
cabbage  leaf,  or  amid  the  waving  forests  of  an 
asparagus  bed.  But  as  he  avoids  heat  in  the  sum- 
mer, so  in  the  decline  of  the  year  he  improves  the 
faint  autumnal  beams,  by  getting  within  the  reflec- 
tion of  a  fruit  wall ;  and  though  he  never  has  read 
that  planes  inclining  to  the  horizon  receive  a 
greater  share  of  warmth,  he  inclines  his  shell,  by 
tilting  it  against  the  wall,  to  collect  and  admit 
every  feeble  ray. 

This  pet  was  a  huge  sleeper ;  for  it  not  only 
remained  under  the  earth  from  the  middle  of  No- 
vember to  the  middle  of  April,  its  arbitrary 
stomach  and  lungs  enabling  it  to  refrain  from  eat- 
ing as  well  as  breathing  during  that  time,  but 
slept  the  greater  part  of  the  summer  ;  for  it  went 
to  bed  in  the  longest  days  at  four  in  the  afternoon, 
and  often  did  not  stir  in  the  morning  till  late. 
Besides,  it  retired  to  rest  for  every  shower,  and 
did  not  move  at  all  on  wet  days. 

When  one  reflects  (says  White)  on  the  stale  of 
this  strange  being,  it  is  a  matter  of  wonder  to  find 
that  Providence  should  bestow  such  a  profusion  of 
days,  such  a  seeming  waste  of  longevity,  on  a 
reptile  that  appears  to  relish  it  so  little  as  to  squan- 
der away  more  than  two  thirds  of  its  existence  in 
a  joyless  stupor,  and  be  lost  to  all  sensation  for 
months  together  in  the  profoundest  of  slumbers. 

But  notwithstanding  this  lethargic  temperament 
the  old  tortoise  knew  its  benefactress,  and  as  soon 
as  the  good  old  lady  came  in  sight,  who  had 
waited  on  it  for  more  than  thirty  years,  it  hobbled 
towards  her  with  awkward  alacrity,  but  remained 
inattentive  to  strangers.  There  was  too  an  annual 
period  when  he  was  unusually  on  the  alert.  We 
think  we  can  see  the  worthy  pastor  of  Selborne 
looking  down,  with  the  air  of  the  melancholy 
Jaques,  on  his  favorite,  and  exclaiming  : — 

Pitiable  seems  the  condition  of  this  poor  em- 
barrassed reptile  :  to  be  cased  in  a  suit  of  ponder- 
ous armor,  which  he  cannot  lay  aside  ;  to  be  im- 
prisoned, as  it  were,  within  his  own  shell  ;  must 
preclude,  we  should  suppose,  all  activity  and  dis- 


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83 


position  for  enterprise.  Yet  there  is  a  season  of 
the  year  (usually  the  beginning  of  June)  when  his 
exertions  are  remarkable.  He  then  walks  on  tip- 
toe, and  is  stirring  by  five  in  the  morning;  and, 
traversing  the  garden,  explores  every  wicket  and 
interstice  in  the  fences,  through  which  he  will 
escape  if  possible ;  and  often  has  eluded  the  care 
of  the  gardener,  and  wandered  to  some  distant 
field.  The  motives  that  impel  him  to  undertake 
these,  rambles  seem  to  be  of  the  amorous  kind  ;  his 
fancy  then  becomes  intent  on  sexual  attachments, 
which  transport  him  beyond  his  usual  gravity,  and 
induce  him  to  forget  for  a  time  his  ordinary  solemn 
deportment. 

It  is  very  possible  that  Cupid  may  have  then 
been  bestriding  him.  White's  description  looks 
Tery  like  the  restlessness  of  passion — 

Nee  tibi  Vespero 
Sursjente  decedunt  amores, 
Nee  rapidum  fugiente  solem. 

But  the  love  of  liberty  and,  not  improbably,  an 
annual  migratory  impulse  in  search  of  fresh  pas- 
ture, may  have  been  the  prevailing  motive.  At 
all  events,  neither  he  nor  the  other  fye^foixos  are 
without  their  comforts.  Each  of  them  is  inde- 
pendent of  any  capricious  landlord,  and  both  snail 
and  tortoise,  if  they  could  speak,  might  say  what 
it  is  a  great  privilege  to  be  able  to  say,  "  Death 
alone  can  turn  me  out  of  this  house." 

The  tenacity  of  life  with  which  the  Testudinata 
are  gifted  would  be  hardly  credible  to  those  who 
have  not  closely  studied  the  subject.  No  well- 
regulated  mind  can  read  of  some  of  the  experi- 
ments which  have-  been  made  to  place  the  fact 
beyond  all  doubt  without  being  shocked  ;  but 
averse  as  every  good  man  must  be  to  the  infliction 
of  pain  or  death,  it  is  but  fair  to  allow  that  such 
experiments  may  be  more  cruel  in  appearance 
than  in  reality.  Redi's  operations  must  have 
been  attended  with  instant  death  if  made  upon 
the  higher  and  warm-blooded  vcrtebrata.  His 
tortoises  lived,  and  showed  no  signs  of  acute 
suffering. 

In  the  beginning  of  November  he  opened  the 
skull  of  a  land-tortoise,  removed  every  particle  of 
brain,  and  cleaned  the  cavity  out.  The  animal 
was  then  set  at  liberty,  but,  instead  of  dying  or 
remaining  motionless,  it  groped  its  way  about 
freely  as  its  inclination  directed,  without  the  aid 
of  sight  ;  for  when  the  animal  was  deprived  of  its 
brain  it  closed  its  eyes,  which  it  never  opened 
afterwards.  The  wound  was  left  open,  but 
skinned  over  in  three  days,  and  the  tortoise  con- 
tinued to  go  about  till  the  middle  of  May,  when 
it  died.  On  examining  the  skull,  the  cavity 
which  had  contained  the  brain  was  found  empty 
and  clean  as  it  had  been  left,  with  the  exception 
of  one  small,  dry,  black  clot  of  blood. 

But  this  was  not  a  solitary  instance.  Many 
other  land-tortoises  were  subjected  to  the  same 
treatment  in  November,  January,  February,  and 
March.  The  result  was  similar,  with  some  ex- 
ception ;  for  some  moved  about  freely,  but  others, 
though  they  showed  that  they  were  alive  by 
other  motions,  did  not.  Fresh-water  tortoises, 


when  made  the  subjects  of  the  same  experiment, 
acted  like  the  others,  but  did  not  Jive  so  long. 
But  Redi  had  a  notion,  that  if  the  marine  tortoises 
were  deprived  of  their  brain  they  would  live  for  a 
very  long  time  ;  for  having  received  a  turtle 
which  was  very  much  wasted  and  faint,  he  opened 
its  skull  and  treated  it  in  every  respect  as  he  had 
treated  the  land-tortoises,  and,  emaciated  as  it 
was,  it  lived  six  days  after  the  operation. 

But  Redi  proved  the  enduring  vitality  of  these 
reptiles  by  a  more  decisive  experiment.  In  the 
month  of  November  he  cut  off  the  head  of  a  large 
tortoise ;  the  headless  animal  did  not  expiie  till 
twenty-three  days  had  elapsed.  This  decapitated 
existent  did  not,  indeed,  move  about  like  those 
which  had  only  been  robbed  of  their  brain  ; 
but  when  any  mechanical  stimulus,  such  as  prick- 
ing or  poking,  was  applied  to  the  anterior  or 
posterior  extremities,  the  headless  trunk  drew 
them  up  with  considerable  liveliness,  and  exhibit- 
ed many  other  motions.  To  free  himself  from 
all  doubt  as  to  the  vitality  of  these  animals  under 
such  circumstances,  Redi  cut  off  the  heads  of  four 
other  tortoises.  Twelve  days  after  decapitation 
he  opened  two  of  them,  when  he  beheld  the 
heart  beating,  and  saw  the  blood  enter  and  leave  it 

These  were  Redi's  experiments  :  for  them  he 
is  answerable.  But  it  is  only  just  to  remark, 
that  in  this  frightful  state  of  life  in  death  there 
may  be  more  of  irritability  than  sensation.  The 
restoration  of  mutilated  organs  in  the  reptiles  is 
wonderful  to  the  uninitiated.  Look  at  the  eye  :  a 
subject  for  Newton.  I  remember  to  have  seen  in 
a  large  glass  bowl  a  number  of  aquatic  lizards, 
which  were  undergoing  the  curative  and  repro- 
ductive process,  which  kind  nature  had  initiated — 
ay,  and  carried  out  completely — after  they  had 
been  deprived  of  an  anterior  extremity  or  an  eye. 
In  both  cases  the  organs  were  reproduced.  The 
anterior  extremity  is  nothing  when  compared  to 
the  organ  of  vision  ;  but,  after  all,  the  cornea 
through  which  we  see  such  glorious  sights  is 
nothing  but  a  modification  of  the  skin,  and  the 
rest  of  that  wonderful  orb  in  a  low  grade  of  ani- 
mal nature  may  be  easily  supplied .  It  may  occur 
to  some  that  the  clot  in  the  cranium  of  Redi's 
brainless  tortoise  was  an  attempt  to  restore  the 
great  centre  of  the  nervous  system ;  but  the 
probability  is,  that  nature  was  endeavoring  to 
repair'  the  injury,  and  to  secure  as  much  of  life  as 
was  to  be  obtained  under  the  shocking  circum- 
stances. 

The  length  of  time  during  which  Redi's  head- 
less tortoise  lingered  will  not  surprise  those  who 
have  seen  how  much  life  remains,  and  for  how 
long,  in  a  turtle  after  all  its  wasting  by  the  un- 
healthy voyage.  We  have  been  taught,  and  truly 
with  respect  to  the  higher  grade  of  animals,  that: 
in  the  blood  is  the  life.  But  in  the  case  of  the- 
testudinate  which  is  to  furnish  forth  the  soup,  the 
calippee,  the  steaks,  the  currie,  for  which  and. 
upon  which  aldermen  live,  any  one  who  wishes  to 
descend  into  the  abysses  from  which  that  am- 
brosial feast  is  furnished  forth,  may  find  a  head- 


84 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


less  trunk  suspended  neck  downwards  that  it  may 
bleed  more  freely,  and  the  head  placed  bill  upper- 
most on  a  cold  plate  for  the  resting-place  of  the 
severed  neck.  The  snapping  of  the  jaws  of  that 
distant  head,  and  the  movements  of  that  suspended 
body,  have  startled  more  than  one  neophyte  who 
has  been  taken  down  to  see  "  what  a  turtle  can 
do  when  its  head  is  cut  off;"  especially  if,  as  it 
has  happened  to  some  of  my  friends,  their  fingers 
have  chanced  to  come  within  reach  of  the  turtle's 
bill  at  the  snapping  moment. 

That  such  post-decapitation  snaps  and  motions 
should  raise  horrible  ideas  of  comparison  is  hardly 
to  be  wondered  at ;  and  I  remember  this  instance 
of  the  vitality  of  the  turtle's  head  being  brought 
foiward  in  corroboration  of  the  sickening  story  of 
the  blush  on  Charlotte  Corday's  face,  when  the 
biutal  executioner  struck  it  on  the  cheek  as  he 
held  up  the  severed  head  to  the  execration  of  the 
friends  of  the  imp  Marat,  the  idol  of  the  canaille 
that  surrounded  the  guillotine.  A  friend  saw  an 
execution  in  Italy  by  an  instrument  resembling  the 
Scottish  maiden.  He  was  very  near  the  scene  of 
death,  and  when  the  criminal's  head  was  held  up, 
he  saw  the  eyes  roll  from  right  to  left  and  from 
left  to  right.  Those  best  qualified  to  judge  are 
of  opinion  that  this  and  similar  movements  are 
merely  convulsive,  and  that  the  severed  head  does 
not  feel.  To  say  nothing  of  the  stunning  shock 
to  the  nervous  system,  more  especially  if  the  pon- 
derous trenchant  axe  falls  upon  the  occiput,  as  it 
did  in  the  case  of  the  unfortunate  Louis  XVI., 
whose  under-jaw  was  said  to  have  been  left  on  the 
trunk,  either  from  his  shrinking  just  before  the 
fatal  moment,  or  the  shortness  of  his  neck ;  the 
blood-vessels  of  the  brain  must  be  so  speedily 
emptied  when  a  person  suffers  death  by  the  guil- 
lotine, that  all  sensation  must  vanish  in  a  very 
short  space  of  time ;  but  it  is  very  far  from  clear 
that  the  head  does  not  continue  to  live  during  that 
short  space,  and  if  it  feels  even  for  a  moment  or 
two,  who  shall  say  that  in  those  moments  it  may 
not  suffer  an  eternity  of  agony  and  shame  1  It  has 
been  hinted,  that  during  that  diabolical  French 
carnival,  when  terror  reigned  supreme,  and  frater- 
nity— the  fraternity  of  Cain  and  his  brother — had 
reached  its  culminating  point,  observations  were 
made  on  "the  newly-severed  heads  that  gave  evi- 
dence of  action,  if  not  of  feeling,  after  their  sep- 
aration from  the  bodies  of  the  victims  of  the  revo- 
lutionary tribunal.  Some  of  our  readers  may 
have  heard  of  another  horror  of  that  accursed  time. 
At  first,  when  the  executions  were  few  and  far 
between,  the  body  was  thrown  into  quicklime ; 
but  as  the  thirst  for  blood  advanced,  when  the 
guillotine  was  en  permanence,  and,  though  it  rested 
not,  could  not  do  the  work  of  extermination  fast 
enough ;  when  the  cord,  and  the  pike,  and  the 
sabre,  and  the  musket,  and  the  cannon,  were  all 
^brought  into  action,  and  the  noyades  were  added 
to  the  fusillades,  the  utilitarians  began  to  think 
that  the  quicklime  operation  was  destructive  of 
much  good  animal  matter.  So  the  muscle  of  the 
slaughtered  was  converted  into  adipocere  for  the 


candle  manufactory,  and  their  skins  furnished  no 
small  quantity  of  exquisite  leather.  Little  did 
the  beauty  of  that  age,  as  she  charmed  all  eyes  at 
the  ball,  think  whence  came  the  light  in  which 
she  shone,  or  that  the  delicate  glove  which  set  off 
her  more  delicate  arm  was  not  the  spoil  of  the 
kid.* 

More  than  enough  of  these  horrors — may  they 
never  rise  again  to  shock  humanity  in  our  time  ! — 
and  "  return  we" — as  a  most  excellent  judge  was 
wont  to  say  when  leading  back  the  jury  from  a 
digression  into  which  he  had  seduced  them,  but 
always  with  the  effect  of  arresting  their  attention 
more  strongly  to  the  issue  which  they  had  to  try 
— return  we  to  the  extraordinary  vitality  mani- 
fested by  the  Testudinata  under  the  most  adverse 
circumstances. 

A  small  tortoise  was  received  in  this  country  in 
the  winter  ;  in  a  state  of  hibernation,  doubtless. 
The  condition  of  the  little  animal  never  occurred 
to  the  recipient.  The  head  and  limbs  were  tucked 
into  the  shell,  and  he  put  it  into  a  drawer  with  a 
collection  of  snuff-boxes,  intending  to  have  it 
mounted  as  a  companion  to  the  rest.  The  drawer 
was  not  opened  for  many  months,  and  when  it 
was,  it  smelt,  as  the  proprietor  thought,  rather 
musty.  He  therefore  pulled  it  out  on  a  fine, 
warm,  moist,  autumnal  day,  exposed  it  to  the 
open  air  on  the  outside  of  a  window,  and  went 
where  his  business  called  him.  When  he  re- 
turned, he  thought  he  would  take  a  look  at  his 
drawer,  and  as  soon  as  he  cast  a  glance  upon  it, 
he  saw,  as  he  thought,  one  of  his  snuff-boxes 
walking  about.  He  rubbed  his  eyes,  and  looked 
again.  His  senses  had  not  deceived  him,  for 
there  was  the  tortoise  roused  from  his  long,  long 
sleep,  by  the  genial  atmosphere ;  and,  though  it 
was  not  exactly  in  the  state  to  make  soup  for  a 
fairy  alderman,  it  soon  gained  strength  under  kind 
treatment,  and  lived  long. 

The  alleged  length  of  time  during  which  sus- 
pended animation  may  be  continued,  with  the 
power  of  again  resuming  the  functions  of  life, 
would  be  considered  as  fit  only  for  fable,  were  it 
not  confirmed  beyond  all  doubt.  Hear  honest  and 
true  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  thus  relates  a  some- 
what extraordinary  anecdote  of  some  flies  which 
had  undergone  a  similar  fate  to  that  of  "  poor 
Clarence,"  but  with  a  much  more  happy  result  to 
some  of  the  party  : — 

They  had  been  drowned  in  Madeira  wine,  ap- 
parently about  the  time  when  it  was  bottled  in 
Virginia,  to  be  sent  hither  (to  London.)  At  the 
opening  of  one  of  the  bottles  at  the  house  of  a  friend 
where  I  then  was,  three  drowned  flies  fell  into  the 
first  glass  which  was  filled  Having  heard  it  re- 
marked that  drowned  flies  were  capable  of  being 
revived  by  the  rays  of  the  sun,  I  proposed  making 
the  experiment  upon  these  ;  they  were,  therefore, 
exposed  to  the  sun  upon  a  sieve,  which  had  been 
employed  to  strain  them  out  of  the  wine.  In  less 
than  three  hours  two  of  them  began  by  degrees  to 
recover  life.  They  commenced  by  some  convulsive 

*  The  skin  of  a  human  being,  properly  prepared,  is  very 
like  line  kid  leather. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


85 


motions  in  the  thighs,  and  at  length  they  raised 
themselves  upon  their  legs,  wiped  their  eyes  with 
their  fore-feet,  beat  and  brushed  their  wings  with 
their  hind-feet,  and  soon  after  began  to  fly — finding 
themselves  in  old  England  without  knowing  how 
they  came  thither.  The  third  continued  lifeless  till 
sunset,  when,  losing  all  hopes  of  him,  he  was 
thrown  away. 

The  philosopher  thus  improves  the  occasion  : — 

I  wish  it  were  possible,  from  this  instance,  to 
invent  a  method  of  embalming  drowned  per- 
sons, in  such  a  manner  that  they  might  be  recalled 
to  life  at  any  period,  however  distant ;  for,  having 
a  very  ardent  desire  to  see  and  observe  the  state  of 
America  an  hundred  years  hence,  I  should  prefer 
to  any  ordinary  death  the  being  immersed  in  a  cask 
of  Madeira  wine,  with  a  few  friends,  till  that  time, 
to  be  recalled  to  life  by  the  solar  warmth  of  my 
dear  country.* 

Now,  Heaven  forbid,  that  in  this  incredulous 
time  any  doubt  should  be  thrown  upon  this  com- 
fortable story ;  but  I  have  somewhere  met  with 
another  account  of  the  extraordinary  longevity 
of  a  fly.  The  relator,  when  in  Germany,  was 
promised  by  his  host  a  superlative  wine  which 
had  been  ten  years  in  bottle.  The  well-corked 
flask  was  produced,  and  while  mine  host  was 
descanting  on  its  age  and  merits,  and  holding  it 
up  to  the  light,  he,  to  whom  it  was  offered,  be- 
held between  his  eye  and  the  sun  a  fly  vigorously 
struggling  on  the  surface  of  the  wine.  Modest  as 
he  was,  he  could  not  resist  his  impulse  to  point 
out  the  struggler,  observing  that  the  venerable  in- 
sect had,  no  doubt,  been  kept  in  health  and  vigor 
by  the  elixir  vita  in  the  bottle.  The  innkeeper — 
and  this  is  the  strangest  part  of  the  story — was 
abashed  ;  and  in  his  confusion  was  surprised  into 
a  declaration  that  he  never  would  tell  another  lie. 

The  old  nursery-book  told  us,  and  told  us  truly, 
under  usual  circumstances,  that 

The  tortoise  securely  from  danger  does  dwell, 
When  he  tucks  up  his  head  and  his  tail  in  his  shell. 

The  true  Terrapenes,  or,  as  those  land-tortoises 
are  called  by  Jack,  "  Turpins,"  may  defy  the 
general  chapter  of  accidents,  though  there  may 
be  no  safety  either  for  him  or  the  poet,  on  whose 
bald  head  a  raptorial  bird  may  drop  the  reptile 
from  on  high,  taking  the  calvarium  for  a  stone. 
With  a  dorsal  buckler  constructed  principally  out 
of  eight  pair  of  ribs,  united  towards  their  middle 
by  a  succession  of  angular  plates,  into  which  the 
ribs  are,  as  it  were,  inlaid ;  and  a  plastron  or 
breastplate  composed  of  nine  pieces,  each  of  which, 
with  one  exception,  are  pairs,  the  ninth  being 
placed  between  the  four  anterior  pieces,  with  the 
two  first  of  which  it  generally  coheres,  when  it  is 
not  articulated  with  the  four,  and  the  whole  form- 
ing in  the  adult  a  strong  breast-and-belly  plate — 
compact  in  all  its  parts,  and  united  on  each  side  to 
the  dorsal  buckler,  the  whole  being  so  framed  and 
composed  as  to  resist  a  very  high  degree  of  pres- 
sure, or  a  powerful  blow — the  land-tortoise  has 
only  to  offer  the  passive  resistance  of  its  defensive 

*  Franklin's  Memoirs,  vol.  ii.,  p.  227. 


armor  to  set  at  nought  the  attacks  of  ordinary  en- 
emies. There  is  one  genus  of  land-tortoises* 
which  does  not  grow  to  such  a  size,  or  carry  such 
ponderous  armor,  as  those  of  the  genus  Testudo, 
that  has  a  still  further  safeguard  against  the  pre- 
datory animals  to  whose  attempts  it  is  exposed. 
In  this  form  the  anterior  portion  of  the  plastron, 
reaching  backward  to  the  space  occupied  by  the 
two  first  pairs  of  sternal  plates,  is  susceptible  of 
motion.  Under  the  strongly-marked  suture  of  the 
second  with  the  third  pair,  is  the  elastic  ligament 
which  serves  for  a  hinge.  When  the  animal 
wishes  to  open  this  movable  lid,  under  which, 
when  closed,  the  head  and  fore-feet  are  closely 
boxed  up,  it  lowers  the  lid,  protrudes  its  head.and 
fore-feet,  and  walks  or  feeds  till  danger  ap- 
proaches, when  it  draws  them  in,  raises  the  lid, 
and  thus  shuts  itself  up  in  a  compact-box  ;  for  the 
edges  of  this  operculum  on  hinges  fit  close  as 
wax  to  those  of  the  carapace,  which  here  forms  a 
sort  of  animated  door-case.  Thus  the  animal  has 
nothing  to  fear  in  front ;  and  behind,  it  is  securely 
protected  by  its  enlarged  and  deepened  plastron, 
under  which  the  posterior  extremities  and  tail  can 
be  entirely  and  snugly  drawn  up.  Among  the 
marsh-tortoisesf  there  is  a  similar  conformation ; 
and  the  species  so  protected  have  obtained  the  apt 
name  of  Box-tortoises. 

But,  as  if  Nature  were  determined  to  show  that 
she  can  vary  any  plan,  however  ingenious,  she  has 
thought  fit  to  turn  out  of  hand  another  phase  of 
this  box-like  construction,  and  in  Kinyxis  we  have 
it  behind  instead  of  before.  The  tortoises  of  this 
group  are  gifted  with  the  power  of  moving  the 
posterior  part  of  their  carapace,  which  they  can 
lower  and  apply  to  their  plastron,  so  as  completely 
to  close  the  box  behind,  as  those  of  the  genus 
Pyxis  close  the  anterior  part  of  their  shells.  But 
in  Kinyxis  there  is  no  hinge-like  apparatus  as 
there  is  in  Pyxis.  In  Kinyxis  the  bones  bend ; 
and,  in  consequence  of  their  thinness  and  elasticity, 
the  carapace  can  be  bent  down  at  the  will  of  the 
animal,  so  as  to  approximate  the  plastron.  A 
sinuous  line,  on  which  the  animal  mechanism  op- 
erates, is  indicated  externally  between  the  penulti- 
mate and  ante-penultimate  marginal  plate ;  and 
this  point,  or  rather,  line  of  flexion,  is  furni?hed 
with  a  tissue  partaking  of  the  nature  of  fibre  and 
cartilage. 

But  which  of  the  land-tortoises  furnished  the 
shell — the  chorded  shell,  dear  to  Apollo  and  the 
Muses  ? 

Pausanias  says,  that  it  was  a  species  which  was 
found  in  the  Arcadian  woods ;  and  it  very  proba- 
bly was  that  now  known  as  Testudo  Grezca. 
Others  declare  that  it  was  an  African  species 
(whose  carapace  and  dried  tendons  gave  out  a 
sound  when  struck  by  Mercury,  who  found  it  after 
an  inundation  of  the  Nile)  that  furnished  the  hint 
for  the  lyre. 

The  Elodians,  or  marsh-tortoises,  are  gifted 
with  far  greater  activity  than  their  terrestrial  re- 
lations. They  swim  with  great  facility,  and  make 


*  Pyxis. 


t  Sternothaerus. 


86 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


a  much  quicker  inarch  on  land,  leading  a  preda- 
tory, quisquilious,  amphibious  life,  and  frequenting 
sluggish  streams,  the  lake,  the  pond,  and  the 
marsh  Their  food  consists  principally  of  fresh- 
water molluscous  animals,  tailless  and  tailed 
batrachians,*  and  annelids,  or  worm-like  crea- 
tures. 

The  honeymoon  of  these  elodians  endures  for 
many  weeks  at  a  certain  time  of  the  year  ;  and 
their  prolonged  loves  are  blest  with  a  goodly  batch 
of  spherical  eggs,  without  any  calcareous  shell, 
but  as  white  as  those  of  the  other  chelonians. 
The  nest  is  a  shallow  cavity  in  the  earth,  scraped 
out  by  the  female  ;  and  the  banks  of  the  waters, 
wherein  she  spends  much  of  her  time,  are  general- 
ly selected ;  for  her  instinct  teaches  her  that  such 
a  locality  offers  a  refuge  to  the  young,  who  take 
refuge  in  the  waters  from  their  numerous  enemies 
as  soon  as  they  are  hatched. 

And  here  it  may  be  observed  that  the  Chersians, 
or  land-tortoises,  are,  as  a  general  rule,  feeders  on 
vegetables ;  the  Thalassians,  or  sea-tortoises, 
commonly  known  as  turtles,  both  vegetarian  (in 
some  cases  almost  entirely  so)  and  carnivorous ; 
while  the  Elodians,  or  marsh-tortoises,  and  the 
Potamians,  or  river-tortoises,  which  may  both  be 
classed  under  one  common  head,  the  gradation 
being  almost  insensible,  are  supported  on  animal 
food,  the  prey  being  generally  taken  in  a  living 
state.  In  conformity  with  this  dispensation,  the 
anterior  extremity  of  the  upper  bill  in  the  majority 
of  species  exhibits  a  large  notch,  and  on  each  side 
of  it  a  sufficiently  strong  tooth,  reminding  the  ob- 
server of  the  beak  of  the  higher  raptorial  birds. 

In  some  of  this  group,  Nature,  which  in  the 
chelonian  forms  which  we  have  already  noticed 
had  contented  herself  with  a  lid  either  before  or 
behind,  carries  out  what  may  be  termed  the  box 
principle,  by  making,  as  in  the  genus  Cistudo,  a 
movable  lid  both  before  and  behind.  In  this  sub- 
genus  a  cartilage  attaches  the  wide  oval  plastron 
to  the  buckler.  This  cartilage  is  movable  both 
before  and  behind,  turning  on  the  same  transversal 
mesial  hinge,  and,  at  the  will  of  the  animal,  pre- 
senting nothing  but  a  well-closed  box  to  the  pry- 
ing eyes  of  the  enemy.  In  Kinosternon,  also,  the 
oval  sternum  is  movable  before  and  behind  on  a 
fixed  piece  ;  but  in  Staurotypus,  the  thick  cruci- 
form sternum  is  movable  in  front  only.  In  others 
again,  Platysternon  and  Emysaura,  for  example, 
the  plastron  is  immovable. 

The  Potamians,  or  true  river-tortoises,  whose 
species  have  been  confounded  under  the  name  of 
Trionyx,  have  among  them  some  which  grow  to  a 
considerable  size.  To  say  nothing  of  one  which 
was  kept  by  Pennant,  and  weighed  twenty  pounds, 
seventy  pounds  have  been  stated  as  the  weight 
attained  by  certain  individuals.  Inhabiting  the 
streams  and  rivers,  or  great  lakes  of  the  warmer 
regions  of  the  earth,  their  habits  are  generally 
similar.  Swimming  with  much  ease  either  upon 
or  beneath  the  surface  of  the  water,  they  pursue 

*  Anurous  and  urodcle  batrachians  of  the  learned. 


roung  crocodiles,  other  reptiles  and  fishes,  which 
heir  agility  enables  them  to  make  their  prey. 
They  are  also  said  to  be  great  destroyers  of  the 
;ggs  of  the  crocodiles,  especially  in  the  Nile  and 
he  Ganges.  The  angler  baits  his  hook  for  them 
with  small  fishes  or  other  living  bait,  unless  his 
skill  enables  him  so  to  play  a  dead  or  artificial  one 
as  to  deceive  the  sharp  eyes  of  these  tortoises, 
whose  flesh  is  considered  very  good  for  the  table. 
.f  he  goes  out  with  proper  tackle,  the  sport  is 
satisfactory  enough  ;  but  one  of  them  took  the  fly 
of  a  justly-celebrated  singer  and  skilful  disciple  of 
old  Izaak's  school,  while  he  was  fishing  for  trout. 
Ele  thought  he  had  got  hold  of  an  old  boat ;  but, 
unwieldy  as  his  prize  was,  he  would  probably 
lave  landed  it  if  left  to  himself.  His  stupid  at- 
tendant, however,  rushed  forward  and  seized  the 
.ine,  which,  thus  deprived  of  the  spring  of  the  rod, 
:ould  not  bear  the  strain,  and  the  potamian  got 
lear  off. 

Islets,  rocks,  floating  timber,  or  the  trunks  of 
"alien  trees  on  the  banks,  are  the  favorite  places 
of  resort  to  which  these  tortoises  come  for  repose 
during  the  night.  But  they  are  very  wary,  and 
the  least  noise  sends  them  immediately  into  the 
water.  They  are  troublesome  customers  to  those 
who  are  not  aware  of  their  mode  of  attack.  When 
they  seize  their  prey,  or  are  on  the  defensive,  they 
suddenly  and  most  rapidly  dart  out  their  retracted 
tiead  and  long  neck,  like  lightning,  biting  most 
sharply  ;  and  rarely  relaxing  their  hold  till  they 
have  taken  the  piece,  into  which  they  have  fixed 
their  cutting  and  pertinacious  bill,  out.  The 
fisherman,  therefore,  either  cuts  off  their  heads  as 
soon  as  he  has  secured  them,  or  reins  them  up 
with  a  sort  of  bridle,  so  as  to  prevent  the  dreaded 
bite  ;  and,  in  this  last  state,  I  have  been  told,  they 
are  often  exposed  alive  for  sale  in  the  markets. 

In  the  months  of  April  or  May,  the  sandy  spots 
on  the  banks  of  the  rivers  or  lakes  which  have  a 
good  exposure  to  the  sun  are  sought  out  by  the 
females,  as  the  places  of  deposit  of  their  eggs,  to 
the  amount  of  some  fifty  or  sixty  ;  and  in  July  the 
young  make  their  appearance.  The  patience  of  a 
German  is  proverbial ;  with  the  eternal  pipe  in  his 
mouth,  he  calmly  follows  out  his  subject,  and  fol- 
lows it  out  well ;  but  when  we  find  Monsieur 
Lesueur  patiently  counting  the  ova  in  the  ovary 
of  a  potamian  mother,  and  deliberately  giving  the 
results,  we  pause,  and  thank  the  gods  who  have 
disposed  the  mercurial  mind  of  one  of  our  near 
neighbors  to  quietly  settle  down  to  ovarian  statis- 
tics. In  the  ovary  of  a  pregnant  potamian  M. 
Lpsueur  counted  twenty  ripe  eggs,  ready  to  come 
forth  at  the  bidding  of  Dame  Nature.  Then  he 
saw  a  quantity  of  ova,  varying  in  size  from  that 
of  a  pin's  head  to  the  goodly  volume  of  rotundity 
which  they  attain,  when  the  calcareous  coat,  which 
is  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  egg  when  it 
is  exposed  to  the  dangers  of  this  world,  is  super- 
added  :  what  "  the  tottle  of  the  whole"  is,  may 
be  ascertained  by  those  who  feel  disposed  to  in- 
quire of  M.  Lesueur  ;  and,  if  they  will  consult  the 
oracle,  they  will  rise  from  the  consultation  wiser 


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87 


men,  unless  they  have  sounded  all  the  shallows 
and  depths  of  testudinate  life. 

But  enough,  arid,  for  the  reader  who  is  not 
zoologically  disposed,  more  than  enough.  He 
has  been  led,  if  he  has  condescended  to  follow, 
from  the  land  to  the  marsh,  from  the  marsh  to  the 
lake,  stream,  and  river,  the  residences  of  the  ra- 
rious  modifications  of  testudinate  life.  A  short 
repose  should  be  placed  at  his  disposal,  before,  in 


the  course  of  our  narrative,  he  follows  these  great 
rivers  of  the  old  and  new  world,  in  which  the 
fresh  water  tortoises  disport  themselves,  into  that 
ocean  in  which  all  rivers,  great  and  small,  are 
lost.  But  there,  in  that  boundless  waste  of 
waters,  we  shall  find  that  Nature  has  modified  the 
Chelonian  type  into  the  Thalassian  shape,  which 
occupies  a  distinguished  reptilian  place  in  the 
present  world,  and  in  that  which  is  gone  forever,. 


THE  extremities  modified  for  walking  on  land, 
in  the  case  of  the  Chersians,  shuffling  about  in 
marshes  and  ponds  in  the  case  of  the  Elodians,*  and 
swimming  in  rivers  with  a  good  garnish  of  claws 
to  enable  the  Potamians  f  to  scramble  upon  banks 
and  logs,  to  say  nothing  of  the  help  of  the  said 
claws  in  enabling  them  to  secure  their  prey,  take,  in 
the  Thalassians,!  an  unmistakable  oar-like  shape. 
No  half-measures  would  enable  a  turtle  to  row 
placidly  on  the  mirror-like  sea,  when 

The  air  is  calm,  and  on  the  level  brine 
Sleek  Panope  with  all  her  sisters  plays, 

or  beat  the  billows  when  the  ocean  is  agitated  by 
storms  such  as  burst  forth  in  tropical  latitudes. 
But  these  paddles  have  a  double  office  to  perform. 
They  are  formed  to  act,  not  only  as  organs  of 
swimming,  but  as  instruments  of  progression  on 
the  tide-furrowed  shore,  when  the  females  travel 
up  to  deposit  their  eggs ;  and  to  this  end,  in  most 
of  the  species,  the  paddle  is  furnished  with  one  or 
more  nails,  which  greatly  assist  the  animal  in  its 
advance  on  land. 

Only  five  well-defined  recent  species  are  known, 
if  Mr.  Gray  be  right  in  considering  Chdone  vir- 
gata  and  Chelonc  maculosa  of  Dumeril  and  Bibron 
as  varieties  of  Chdone  mydas ;  and  this  existing 
state  of  the  limitation  of  the  marine  form  of  these 
reptiles  opens  a  new  and  most  interesting  point 
of  view,  when  compared  with  the  fossil  evidences 
of  the  development  of  this  sub-family  in  the 
ancient  seas  of  our  globe.  Professor  Owen,  in 
his  valuable  History  of  British  Fossil  Reptiles, 
describes  no  less  than  eleven  well-defined  fossil 
species  of  chelone  found  in  Britain,  to  say  nothing 
of  fragments.  Such  a  catalogue,  as  he  justly  ob- 
serves, leads  to  conclusions  of  much  greater  inter- 
est than  the  previous  opinions  respecting  the 
chelonites  of  the  London  clay  could  have  sug- 
gested. 

Whilst  (writes  the  professor)  these  fossils  were 
supposed  to  have  belonged  to  a  fresh  water  genus, 
the  difference  between  the  present  fauna  and  that 
of  the  eocene  period,  in  reference  to  the  chelonian 
order,  was  not  very  great ;  since  the  Emys  (cistuda) 
Europew  still  abounds  on  the  continent  after  which 
it  is  named,  and  lives  long  in  our  own  islands  in 
suitable  localities.  But  the  case  assumes  a  very 
different  aspect  when  we  come  to  the  conviction 
that  the  majority  of  the  eocene  chelonites  belong 
to  the  true  marine  genus  chelone  ;  and  that  the 
number  of  species  of  these  extinct  turtles  already 

*  Marsh  tortoises.  \  River  tortoises. 

J  Sea  tortoises,  or  turtles. 


obtained  from  so  limited  a  space  as  the  Isle  of 
Sheppy,  exceeds  that  of  the  species  of  chelone  now 
known  to  exist  throughout  the  globe. 

The  professor  comes  to  no  hasty  conclusion, 
when  he  states  that  the  ancient  ocean  of  the 
eocene  epoch  was  much  less  sparingly  inhabited 
by  turtles  than  that  which  now  washes  the  shores 
of  our  globe  ;  and  that  these  extinct  turtles  pre- 
sented a  greater  variety  of  specific  modifications 
than  are  known  in  the  seas  of  the  warmer  lati- 
tudes of  the  present  day.  Nor  does  the  inference 
stop  here ;  for,  as  he  well  says  in  continua- 
tion, the  indications  which  the  English  eocene 
turtles,  in  conjunction  with  other  organic  remains 
from  the  same  formation,  afford  of  the  warmer 
climate  of  the  latitude  in  which  they  lived,  as 
compared  with  that  which  prevails  there  in  the 
present  day,  accord  with  those  which  all  the 
organic  remains  of  the  oldest  tertiary  deposits 
have  hitherto  yielded  in  reference  to  this  interest- 
ing point.  We  have  already  seen  that  some  of 
the  fresh-water  tortoises  make  the  eggs  and  young 
of  crocodilians  and  other  reptiles  their  prey,  and 
the  conformation  of  some  of  these  fossils  furnishes 
the  author  of  the  work  here  cited  with  another 
generalizing  observation. 

After  remarking  that  abundance  of  food  must 
have  been  produced  under  the  influences  of  a 
climate  such  as  that  which  the  fossil  turtles  en- 
joyed, he  proceeds  to  the  inference  that  to  some 
of  the  extinct  species — which,  like  the  Chelone 
longiceps  and  Chelone  planimentum,  exhibit  a  form 
of  head  well  adapted  for  penetrating  the  soil,  or 
with  modifications  that  indicate  an  affinity  to  the 
Trionyces — was  assigned  the  task  of  checking  the 
undue  increase  of  the  now  extinct  crocodiles  and 
gavials  of  the  same  epoch  and  locality,  by  de- 
vouring their  eggs  or  their  young,  the  trionyces 
themselves  becoming,  probably  in  return,  an  occa 
sional  prey  to  the  older  individuals  of  the  same 
carnivorous  saurians.  Thus  did  the  lex  talionis 
prevail  long  before  lawyers  stained  paper  with 
their  well-galled  ink.  Thus  was  the  balance 
kept  up  in  bygone  ages  as  it  now  is.  The  same 
principle  of  mutual  extermination  was,  and  is, 
and  is  to  be  ;  and  by  this  principle,  which  to  the 
uninitiated  must  wear  somewhat  of  an  Acheroatic 
aspect,  the  greatest  quantity  of  general  happiness 
is  secured  in  what  would  otherwise  be  an  over- 
crowded world  :  but  VCR  victis. 

The  well-arched,  thick-walled,  wagon-proof, 
portable  castle,  assigned  by  the  distributive  justice 
of  Nature  to  the  larger  slow  land  tortoises,  and 


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those,  consequently,  more  exposed  to  observatioi 
and  attacks,  is  in  the  turtles  modified  to  suit  the 
element  in    which   they  principally  live.     The 
carapace  forming  the  roof  is  less  highly  arched 
and  both  it  and  the  floor  or  plastron  are  lighte 
and  less  completely  ossified  ;  but  as  the  head  can 
not  be  drawn  back  under  the  carapace,  as  in  the 
land  tortoises,  it  is  fortified  by  an  additional  bonj 
helmet. 

Besides  these  true  turtles  another  marine  genu, 
exists,  differing  remarkably  from  chelone  ;  this  is 
the  coriaceous  turtle,  Sphargis,  which  has  the 
body  incased  in  a  sort  of  leathern  armor,  and  has 
no  nails  on  the  paddles.  This  form  seems  to 
represent  the  soft  fresh-water  tortoises  in  some 
degree. 

The  green  turtle,  (Chelone  mydus,)  now  the 
cynosure  of  every  aldermanic  eye,  owes  its  Eng- 
lish name  to  the  hue  of  the  delicate  fat  which 
enriches  the  soup  and  various  savory  dishes  that 
form  a  course  of  turtle.  Whether  the  Latin  specific 
name  was  conferred  on  it  by  the  Knight  of  the 
Polar  Star  from  any  punning  justiciary  allusion, 
does  not  seem  to  be  certain.  Notwithstanding 
the  French  names  with  which  it  is  now  the  fash- 
ion to  adorn  every  plat,  be  it  at  city  feast,  great 
club  dinner  to  the  lion  of  the  day,  or  the  more 
refined  repast  served  in  the  Apollo  chamber  of  a 
modern  Lucullus,  England  may  claim  the  honor 
of  availing  itself  of  the  resources  of  its  West 
Indian  possessions,  and  making  "  turtle"  famous. 
The  French  were  a  long  way  behind.  In  Le 
Cuisinier  des  Cuisiniers*  there  is  not  a  single 
receipt  for  dressing  real  turtle. 

What  the  ideas  of  a  Frenchman  on  the  subject 
of  Potage  en  Tortue  were,  may  be  gathered  from 
the  following  :^ 

Potage  en  Tortue. — Ce  potage,  qui  est  aujour- 
d'hui  tres  a  la  mode  dans  les  grands  maisons  et 
chez  les  bons  restaurateurs,  manque  dans  la  plupart 
des  traites  sur  la  cuisine.  Beauvilliers,  et  Viard 
dans  le  Cuisinier  royal,  sont  les  seuls  qui  en  expo- 
sent  la  recette,  mais  avec  des  variantes. 

After  this  exordium  one  is  hardly  prepared  for 
the  receipts  themselves. 

Maticres  employees  par  Beauvilliers. — Mouton, 
e"paule  ou  gigot,  ou  parures  de  Carre's,  debris  de 
poissons,  en  quantite  suffisante,  dans  un  marmite, 
blond  de  veau,  bouquet  de  persil,  aromates,  basilic ; 
la  cuisson  separe  la  chair  des  os.  Le  bouillon 
pass6  au  travers  d'une  serviette,  et  clarifie'  avec  des 
blancs  d'oeufs ;  faire  bouillir,  reduire,  ajouter  du 
vin  de  Madere  ;  la  moitie  d'une  tete  de  veau, 
echudee  de^  la  veille,  desossee,  cuite  dans  un 
blanc,  coupee  par  petits  morceaux ;  dans  le  bouil- 
lon, vin  de  Madere ;  poivre  de  cayenne,  de  kari ; 
dans  le  potage,  des  morceaux  de  veau;  jaunes 
d'oeufs  frais,  durcis,  a  1'instant  du  service. 

Now  for  the  Matter es  employees  par  Viard: 

Tranches  de  bceuf,  parure  de  veau,  poule  ou 
parure  de  volaille,  moitie  consomme  et  moitie' 
blond  de  veau,  carottes,  oignons,  cloux  de  girofle, 
dans  une  marmite ;  moitie"  de  tete  de  veau,  degor- 
gee  et  blanchie,  coupee  par  petits  morceaux  dans 

*  Paris,  1825. 


une  autre  marmite,  petits  piments  enrage"es,  macis 
de  muscade,  consomme,  vin  de  Madere,  champig- 
nons, ris  de  veau  en  tres  petits  morceaux,  cre.tes 
de  cpqs,  rognons,  quenelles  de  volailles ;  dans  la 
soupiere,  ceufs  poches  et  le  potage  dessus ;  si  le 
potage  n'est  pas  assez  corse  ou  assez  fort  en  piment, 
glace  de  volaille,  beurre  de  piment. 

Fire  burn  and  caldron  bubble  ! 
Very  good  potage  no  doubt — but  no  more  like 
tortue  than  I  to  Hercules  ;  and,  even  for  the  mock- 
turtle  here  presented,  any  one  may  safely  back 
Birch  of  Cornhill  against N  the  French  artist. 
When  Cuvier  last  visited  this  country,  and  was 
feasted  by  some  of  our  philosophers  at  the  Albion, 
nothing  struck  him  so  much  as  the  tortue,  upon 
which  his  memory  long  dwelt ;  and  yet  he  had 
had  the  opportunity  of  testing  the  abilities  of  the 
first  cooks  of  his  own  country.  Soyer  and  other 
compatriots  of  his  may  have  shone  since  that 
time  ;  but  formerly  turtle  was  eminently  English. 
Nor  is  it  of  remote  antiquity  as  an  English  dish 
Not  much  more  than  a  hundred  years  have  passed 
since  its  general  introduction,  and  for  a  long  time 
it  was  comparatively  rare.  But  steam,  which 
annihilates  both  space  and  time  to  make  epicures 
as  well  as  lovers  happy,  now  brings  a  regular  and 
rapid  supply  of  really  "  fine  lively  turtle,"  very 
different  from  the  wasted  invalids  which  our  West 
Indiamen  of  the  olden  time  landed  after  their  lag- 
ging voyage.  Bristol  was  famous  for  it ;  and 
some  years  ago  the  Montague  Tavern  bore  away 
the  bell.  There  was  the  best  turtle  I  ever  tasted, 
and  thither  did  George  IV.  send  for  that  which 
graced  his  royal  table.  Whether  the  mantle  has 
descended  on  the  shoulders  of  the  present  priest 
of  Comus  who  officiates  at  the  Montague,  those 
of  my  readers,  if  I  happen  to  have  any,  may 
ascertain  who  go  to  that  ancient  town,  and  make 
a  pilgrimage  up  the  hill  to  the  "  Parade,"  which 
used  to  be  odoriferous  with  the  savory  emanations 
"rom  the  tavern  redolent  of  sweet  basil,  the  grosser 
"umes  of  the  kitchen  sublimed  by  the  perfume  of 
ftme-punch,  /z/ne-sangaree,  and  limes  themselves  : 
accompaniments,  by  the  way,  rarely,  if  ever,  seen 
in  London  ;  where  the  lemon,  fragrant  as  it  is, 
unsatisfactorily  does  duty  for  the  lime,  two  or 
three  of  which  supreme  condiments  were  placed 
n  the  napkin  of  every  guest  when  turtle  was  pre- 
sented at  Bristol. 

Our  own  lamented  Chantrey,  who,  though  fully 
alive  to  the  merits  of  the  good  things  of  this 
world,  was  one  of  the  most  unselfish  and  liberal 
of  men,  had  a  story  of  a  passage  during  one  of 
he  city  feasts  at  which  he  was  present.  The 
jreat  national  sculptor — for  truly  great  and  truly 
national  he  was — sat  next  to  a  functionary  before 
whom  stood  a  large  tureen  of  turtle-soup.  This 
-itizen  instantly  possessed  himself  of  the  ladle, 
•arefully  fished  out  the  coarser  parts,  and  offered 
he  plate  containing  them  to  Chantrey,  who  de- 
lined. 

"  I  watched,"  said  he,  "  the  progress  of  the 
)late  :  at  last  it  was  set  down  before  the  lord-may- 
r's  chaplain  ;  and  the  expression  of  that  man's 
ace,  when  he  beheld  it,  I  shall  never  forget."  The 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


89 


functionary  went  on  helping  till  he  had  cleared 
the  soup  of  all  but  the  green  fat  and  richer  parts, 
the  whole  of  which  he  piled  up  in  a  capacious 
plate  for  himself.  Then  up  spoke  our  sculptor 
and  said, — "  If  you  will  allow  me  to  change  my 
mind,  I'll  take  a  little  turtle;"  and  the  waiter 
who  held  the  plate,  placed  it,  to  the  horror  of  the 
dispensing  expectant,  before  Chantrey,  who  im- 
mediately commenced  spoon-exercise,  as  Jonathan 
delicately  describes  such  evolutions  ;  "  and  this  I 
did,"  said  Chantrey,  "  to  punish  him  for  his 
greed." 

What  was  the  unhappy  functionary  to  do  ? 
His  own  tureen  was  exhausted,  and,  in  a  half-frantic 
tone,  he  called  to  one  of  the  waiters  to  bring  him 
some  turtle.  But  at  city  feasts  the  guests  are 
very  industrious,  especially  when  turtle  is  the 
order  of  the  day ;  and  the  waiter,  after  trying 
about,  brought  back  to  our  greedy  citizen  the 
identical  plate  of  fatless  flesh  which  had  so 
astounded  the  chaplain,  who  had  contrived  to 
exchange  his  unwelcome  portion  for  one  more 
worthy  of  a  sleek  son  of  the  Church :  "  and 
then,"  Chantrey  would  add,  "  my  attentive  neigh- 
bor's visage  was  awful  to  look  upon!"  There 
was  no  help  for  it ;  so  the  disconcerted  functionary 
betook  himself  to  the  rejected  plate,  with  the 
additional  discomfiture  of  seeing  Chantrey  send 
away  his,  still  rich  with  calipee,  fat,  and  fins. 

But  this  is  mild  compared  with  scenes  which 
have  arisen  on  such  occasions  in  less  refined  times. 
Something,  indeed,  may  be  allowed  for  the  weak- 
ness of  human  nature,  and  the  excitement  of  the 
moment,  when 

The  tender  morsels  on  the  palate  melt, 
And  all  the  force  of  cookery  is  felt. 

But  time  was  when  the  Graces  seem  to  have  been 
altogether  banished  from  the  great  civic  feasts, 
and  the  onslaught  of  the  gastrophilists  waxed  fast 
and  furious.  Hogarth  has  touched  this  in  the 
eighth  plate  of  his  inimitable  "  Industry  and  Idle- 
ness," when  the  industrious  'prentice  has  grown 
rich,  and  is  Sheriff  of  London ;  "  representing  to 
us,"  as  worthy  Dr.  Trusler  observes,  "  at  one 
view,  the  various  ways  of  what  we  call  laying  it 
in."  Quin  declared  that  it  was  not  safe  to  sit 
down  to  a  feast  in  one  of  the  city  halls  without  a 
baske't-hilted  knife  and  fork.  At  a  much  later 
period,  a  well-known  "  special  attorney,"  who  had 
fought  his  way  well  on  every  other  stage,  found 
himself  no  match  for  those  who  surrounded  him 
on  lord-mayor's  day.  Whenever  he  endeavored 
to  transfer  a  fat  slice  from  the  savory  haunch  be- 
fore him  to  his  own  plate,  it  was  instantly  speared 
by  the  forks  of  the  foragers  near  him,  and  borne 
away  to  theirs,  till  at  last  he  was  compelled  to 
resign  the  unequal  contest,  and  lay  down  his  din- 
ner arms  in  despair,  though  he  had  got  well  into 
"  The  Alderman's  Walk."  And  yet  civic  hospi- 
tality does  its  best  to  enable  the  catechists  who  are 
invited  to  do  their  duty  towards  their  neighbors, 
as  far  as  plenty  is  concerned.  At  a  turtle-feast, 
the  usual  allowance  was,  perhaps  is — for  there 
has  been  no  falling  off  of  late  in  festal  liberality 


— six  pounds,  live  weight,  per  head.  Thus,  in 
August,  1808,  at  the  Spanish  dinner  at  the  City 
of  London  Tavern,  400  guests  consumed  2500  Ibs. 
of  turtle,  if  the  newspapers  of  that  day  are  wor- 
thy of  credence.  When  we  remember  that  the 
turtle  is  but  the  prologue  to  the  play,  we  may 
form  some  notion  of  the  performances  of  these 
valiant  trenchermen,  who  must  have  gone  near  to 
rival  the  feats  of  some  of  the  ancient  heroes  of 
the  table.  They,  indeed,  have  left  on  record 
gastric  achievements  to  be  envied  by  aldermen  of 
the  most  giant  appetite.  Did  not  Maximin  con- 
sume forty  pounds  of  flesh  in  a  day — nay,  occa- 
sionally sixty  pounds — moistening  his  repast  with 
a  vessel  of  wine  of  the  Capitol  measure,  contain- 
ing about  eight  of  our  gallons  ?  Great  as  he  was 
in  more  senses  than  one,  the  brutal  emperor,  how- 
ever, must  yield  the  palm  to  Phagon,  who,  at  one 
dinner,  consumed  a  whole  boar,  a  hundred  loaves, 
a  wether,  and  a  little  hog,  washing  all  down  with 
more  than  an  orca  of  wine.  Claudius  Albinus 
seems  to  have  had  a  sweet  tooth,  and  a  more  re- 
fined taste  ;  for  one  of  his  meals  consisted  of  five 
hundred  dried  figs,  the  callistruthiae  of  the  Greeks, 
one  hundred  Campanian  peaches,  ten  melons  of 
Ossia,  and  twenty  pounds  of  grapes  from  the 
luscious  vineyards  of  the  blessed  island  of  Leuce, 
that  paradise  of  the  Euxine  Sea.  These  delica- 
cies paved  the  way  for  the  volatile,  consisting  of 
one  hundred  gnat-snappers  ;  and  then  the  orifice 
was  satisfactorily  closed  upon  forty  oysters.  Clau- 
dius, in  this  sweeping  supper,  seems  to  have  re- 
versed the  modern  order  of  dishes,  ending  where 
an  epicure  of  the  nineteenth  century  begins. 
What  his  drinking  capabilities  were  does  not 
appear.  But  the  stern  Romans  were  in  the  habit 
of  becoming  somewhat  hazy  occasionally.  Peo- 
ple do  not  like  to  have  their  various  weaknesses 
paraded  before  the  senate  ;  and  Mark  Antony  bit- 
terly paid  off  Cicero's  philippics.  The  son  of 
the  orator,  by  way  of  commentary,  and  bent  on 
eclipsing  the  fame  of  his  father's  murderer  as  the 
greatest  bibber  of  the  empire,  took  off  two  gal- 
lons at  a  draught.  Nivellius  Torquatus  threw  the 
prowess  of  Marcus  Cicero  into  the  shade  ;  for,  in 
the  presence  of  Tiberius,  he  drank  off  three  gal- 
lons without  drawing  breath  ;  and  Firmus  disposed 
of  two  buckets  full  of  wine  without  flinching ;  to 
say  nothing  of  Offellius  Buraetius,  who  spent  the 
whole  of  his  life  in  making  himself  a  thorough- 
fare for  wine.  The  accomplishment  was  worth 
something  in  those  days.  Three  bacchanalian 
nights  with  Piso  so  endeared  him  to  Tiberius — 
whom  the  wags  irreverently  called  Biberius — that 
he  made  him  praetor  ;  and  for  the  same  convivial 
qualities,  the  emperor  gave  Pomponius  Flaccus 
the  province  of  Syria.  The  road  to  preferment 
generally,  under  his  reign,  seems  to  have  been  the 
same  rosy  way,  for  "  he  also  did  prefer  a  man 
that  was  unknown,  and  sought  for  the  quaestor's 
office,  before  the  most  noble  men,  for  pledging  at  a 
banquet  an  amphora  of  wine,  that  he  drank  to  him. 
And  at  that  time,  when  the  Lex  Fannia  was  pub- 
lished, the  matter  was  come  so  far,  that  many  of 


90 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


the  people  of  Rome  would  come  drunk  into  the 
senate-house,  and  so  consult  of  the  affaires  of  the 
commonwealth."  *  Man  is  an  imitative  animal ; 
and  the  debates  in  our  own  houses  of  parliament 
occasionally  exhibit  symptoms  that  some  of  our 
legislators  have  dined,  though  they  may  not  have 
exactly  fulfilled  that  Greek  symposial  law  that 
required  the  boon  companion  not  to  quit  his  cups 
till  the  morning  star  arose.  Even  in  these  degen- 
erate days,  there  are  not  wanting  examples  of 
those  who  have  bid  the  liquid  ruby  flow  copiously. 
Quin  frequently  carried  off  six  good  bottles  of 
claret  under  his  belt,  after  all  the  spirituous  and 
vinous  accompaniments  of  a  turtle  dinner. 

But  neither  calipash  nor  calipee  gratified  the 
palates  of  the  ancient  Romans.  The  hammer  of 
Charon  descended  upon  the  Apicii  and  Lucullus 
centuries  before  the  Nereids,  who  sport  under  the 
beams  of  the  western  star,  sent  the  delicious  offer- 
ing to  the  epicures  of  the  old  world,  although  the 
sea-nymphs  of  the  East  furnished  the  luxurious 
•with  an  ornament  for  their  tables,  couches,  and 
the  pillars  of  their  houses,  from  another  species. f 
We  can  almost  hear  the  lamentations  of  the  fidg- 
ety, niggardly,  self-tormenting  Mamurra,  poor  in 
the  midst  of  his  riches,  who 

Testudineum  mensus  quater  hexaclinon 
Ingemuit  citro  nou  satis  esse  suo.t 

The  consumption  of  tortoise  shell  at  Rome  for 
ornamental  purposes  must  have  been  very  great ; 
the  very  door-posts  of  the  rich  were  inlaid  with 

M 

The  supply,  occasionally,  must  have  been  more 
than  equal  to  the  demand,  if  we  may  believe  Vel- 
leius  Paterculus,  who  relates  that,  when  Caesar 
took  Alexandria,  the  magazines  were  so  rich  in 
tortoise  shell  that  he  proposed  to  make  that  highly- 
prized  ornament  a  principal  feature  in  his  African 
triumph. 

The  first  man  that  invented  the  cutting  of  tor- 
toise shells  into  thin  plates,  therewith  to  seele  beds, 
tables,  cupbords,  and  presses,  was  Carbilius  Pollio, 
a  man  very  ingenious  and  inventive  of  such  toies, 
serving  to  riot  and  superfluous  expense. || 

*  Jonston.  t  Chelone  imbricata. 

t  Martial,  Epig.  ix.  60.  Juvenal  also  alludes  to  the 
.uxury  in  his  eleventh  satire: — 

Nemo  inter  curas  et  seria  duxit  habendum, 
Qualis  in  Oceani  fluctu  testudo  nataret, 
Clarum  Trojugenis  factura,  ac  nobile  fulcrum. 

§  Familiar  as  is  the  passage,  we  cannot  mar  the  beauty 
of  the  Mantuan's  verse  by  giving  the  sixth  line  alone:— 
O  Fortunatos  nimium  sua  si  bona  norint 
Agricolas  !  quibus  ipsa  procul  discordihus  armis, 
Fundit  humo  facilem  victum  justissima  tellus. 
Si  non  ingentem  foribus  domus  alia  superbis 
Mane  salulantum  totis  vomit  aedihus  undam  ; 
Ncc  varios  inhiant  pulchr&  testudine  pastes, 
Inhisasque  auro  vestes,  Ephyreiaque  aera  ; 
Alba  neque  Assvrio  fucalur  lana  veneno, 
Nee  casia  liquid!  corrmnpitur  usus  olivi: 
At  secura  quies,  et  nescia  fallere  vita, 
Dives  opum  variarum,  atlatis  otia  fundis, 
Speluncae,  vivique  lacus,  at  frigida  Tempe, 
Mugitusque  bourn,  mollesque  sub  arbore  somni 
Non  absunt. 

H  Holland's  Pliny.  And  again, — "Cornelius  Nepos 
writeth,  that  before  the  victory  of  Sylla,  who  defeated 


The  carapace  entire  was  frequently  used  for  a 
cradle  and  a  bath  for  young  children  ;  nor  did  the 
warrior  disdain  it  as  a  shield. 

The  size  to  which  some  of  the  species  grew 
was  enormous,  if  we  are  to  believe  ^Elian,  Pliny, 
Diodorus,  and  others. 

There  he  found  Tortoises  in  the  Indian  sea  so 
great,  that  one  only  shel  of  them  is  sufficient  for 
the  roufe  of  a  dwelling  house.  And  among  the 
Islands  principally  in  the  Red  Sea,  they  use  Tor- 
toise shells  for  boats  and  wherries  upon  the  water. 

And,  again,  (book  vi.  c.  22,)  Pliny,  writing  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Island  of  Taprobane,  states 
that, 

They  take  also  a  great  pleasure  and  delight  in 
fishing,  and  especially  in  taking  of  tortoisses ;  and 
so  great  they  are  found  there,  that  one  of  their 
shels  will  serve  to  cover  an  house  :  and  so  the  in- 
habitants do  employ  them  instead  of  roufes. 

The  largest  skull  of  a  turtle  I  ever  saw  is  in 
the  noble  museum  of  the  Royal  College  of  Sur- 
geons of  England.  It  is  the  cranium  of  a  Log- 
gerhead Turtle,  (Chelone. caouanna,)  and  is  of  the 
following  portentous  dimensions  : — 

Ft.  In.  Lin, 
Length,  in  a  straight  line  from  the  back  \ 

margin  of  the  mastoid  to  the  fore  end  >  0    13     6 

of  the  premaxillary,      .     .     .     .      ) 

Breadth,  in  a  straight  line,     ....    0    11     6 

Height,  including  lower  jaw,      ...    0      90 

Circumference  (horizontal,)   ....    3      40 

And  now  a  few  words  on  the  natural  history 
and  capture  of  some  of  these  Thalassians  ;  and 
first,  of  the  delicate  species,  the  greenish  color  of 
whose  fat  gives  it  one  of  its  names,  and  is  derived 
from  the  turtle-grass  on  which  it  principally  feeds 
— the  green  turtle,  Tortue  franche  of  our  pseudo- 
republican  neighbors  ;  Testudo  mydas,  Linn.;  Che- 
lone mydas  of  more  modern  zoologists. 

The  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  West  Indian  seas 
are  enriched  with  this  luscious  esculent. 

Turtle,  (tortoises,)  writes  Sir  Hans  Sloane,  are 
of  several  sorts;  those  of  the  sea  call'd  green  Tur- 
tle, from  their  fats  being  of  that  colour,  feed  on 
conches  or  shell  fish,  are  very  good  victuals,  and 
sustain  a  great  many,  especially  of  the  poorer  sort 
of  the  Island.  They  are  brought  in  sloops,  as  the 
season  is  for  breeding  or  feeding,  from  the  Cay- 
manes,  or  south  Cayes  of  Cuba,  in  which  forty 
sloops,  part  of  one  hundred  and  eighty,  belonging 
to  Port  Royal,  are  always  imployed.  They  are 
worth  fifteen  shillings  apiece,  best  when  with  egg, 
and  brought  or  put  into  pens,  or  palisadoed  places, 
in  the  harbor  of  Port  Royal,  whence  they  are  taken 

Marius,  VJTO  dining  tables,  and  no  more  there  were 
throughout  Rome,  all  of  silver.  Fenestella  saiih,  that  in 
his  time  (and  he  died  the  last  yere  of  the  reigne  of  Ty- 
berius  Cassar  the  emperor)  men  began  to  bestow  silver 
upon  their  cupboords  and  side  livery  tables:  and  even 
then  also  (by  his  saying)  tortoise  worke  came  in  request, 
and  was  much  used.  Howbeit,  somewhat  before  his 
daies,  he  writeth,  that  those  cupboords  were  of  wood, 
round  and  solid,  of  one  entire  piece,  and  not  much  bigger 
than  the  tables  whereupon  men  eat  their  meat ;  but  when 
hee  was_  a  young  boy,  they  were  foure  square,  and  of  many 
peeces  joyned  together  ;  and  then  they  began  to  be  covered 
over  with  thin  boords  or  painels,  either  of  maple  or  citron 
wood."  So  that,  after  all,  this  is  not  the  only  age  of 
veneer. 


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91 


and  killed  as  occasion  requires.  They  are  much 
better  when  brought  in  first,  than  after  languishing 
in  those  pens  for  want  of  food. 

Apicius  certainly  had  Darteneuf  on  the  hip 
when,  in  reply  to  the  strictures  of  the  latter  on 
his  not  having  made  a  voyage  to  Britain  for  the 
purpose  of  eating  oysters,  the  ghost  of  the  Roman 
retorted  with  the  modern  epicure's  short-comings 
on  his  confession  that,  when  in  the  flesh,  he  had 
not  been  to  the  West  Indies  to  enjoy  turtle.* 

Sloane  gives  a  somewhat  startling  account  of 
the  effect  of  a  turtle  diet : — 

They  infect  the  blood  of  those  feeding  on  them, 
whence  their  shirts  are  yellow,  and  their  skin  and 
face  of  the  same  color. 

Our  aldermen  had  better  have  an  eye  to  their 
linen  and  complexions.  Sloane  starts  a  theory  on 
the  color  of  his  transatlantic  friends,  whose  under- 
garments were  "stained  prodigiously:" — 

This,  I  believe,  (says  he,)  may  be  one  of  the 
reasons  of  the  complexion  of  our  European  inhab- 
itants, which  is  changed,  in  some  time,  from  white 
to  that  of  a  yellowish  color,  and  which  proceeds 
from  this,  as  well  as  the  jaundies,  which  is  com- 
mon, sea  air,  &c. 

And  then,  he  says,  not  without  truth,  that  "  all 
sorts  of  Sea  Tortle,  except  the  green,  are  reckon'd 
fishy  and  not  good  food." 

In  his  chapter  "  of  Quadrupeds  which  are  ovipa- 
rous, or  lay  eggs,"  he  says — 

The  best,  or  green  turtle,  or  tortoises,  come  to 
the  Caymanes  once  a-year  to  lay  their  eggs  in  the 
sand,  to  be  hatch 'd  by  the  sun,  and  at  that  time 
the  turtlers  take  them  in  great  numbers ;  at  other 
times  the  turtles  go  to  the  south  Cayes  of  Cuba, 
there  to  feed  on  the  sea-grass  growing  under  water, 
wherefore  the  turtlers  go  thither  in  quest  of  them  ; 
and  it  may  be,  four  men  in  a  sloop  may  bring  in 
thirty,  forty,  or  fifty  turtles,  worth  seventeen  or 
eighteen  shillings  a-piece,  more  or  less,  according 
to  their  goodness.  The  female  with  egg  is  reck- 
on'd the  best ;  they  sometimes  get  their  loading  in 
a  day,  but  are  usually  six  weeks  in  making  the 
voyage  ;  they  feed  on  turtle,  bisquet  bread  and 
salt ;  they  catch  the  turtle  with  nets  of  yarn  larger 
than  whipcord.  When  they  come  home  they  put 

*  Apicius.  What  grieves  me  most  is,  that  1  never  eat 
a  Turtle.  They  tell  me  that  it  is  absolutely  the  best  of 
all  foods ! 

Darteneuf.  Yes,  I  have  heard  the  Americans  say  so  ; 
but  I  never  eat  any  ;  for  in  my  time  they  were  not  brought 
over  to  England. 

Apicius.  Never  eat  any  turtle  !  How  didst  thou  dare 
accuse  me  of  not  going  to  Sandwich,  to  eat  oysters,  and 
didst  not  thyself  take  a  trip  to  America,  to  not  on  tur- 
tles ?  But  know,  wretched  man,  that  I  am  informed  they 
are  now  as  plentiful  in  England  as  sturgeon.  There  are 
turtle-bouts  that  go  regularly  to  London  and  Bristol  from 
the  West  Indies.  I  have  just  seen  a  fat  alderman,  who 
died  m  London  last  week,  of  a  surfeit  he  got  at  a  turtle 
feast  in  the  city. 

Darteneuf.  What  does  he  say  ?  Does  he  tell  you  that 
turtle  is  better  than  venison  ? 

Apicius.  He  says  there  was  a  haunch  of  venison  un- 
touched, while  every  mouth  was  employed  on  the  turtle  ; 
.that  he  eat  till  he  fell  asleep  in  his  chair,  and  that  the 
food  was  so  wholesome,  he  should  not  have  died,  if  he 
had  not  unluckily  caught  cold  in  his  sleep,  which  stopped 
his  perspiration  and  hurt  his  digestion. 

Darteneuf.  Alas  !  how  imperfect  is  human  felicity,  &c. 
LYTTELTON'S  Dialogues  of  the  Dead.  3d  edit.  1760. 


them  into  the  sea  in  four  square  penns,  or  palisa- 
doed  places,  where  they  keep  aiive  till  there  be 
occasion  to  kill  them,  which  will  be  very  long 
sometimes,  tho'  the  sooner  they  are  killed  after 
taking,  they  are  the  fatter.  The  callipee,  or  under 
part  of  the  breast  and  belly  bak'd,  is  reckoned  the 
best  piece — the  liver  and  fat  are  counted  delicacies. 

And  then  Sir  Hans  proceeds  to  repeat,  as  he 
has  in  another  part  of  his  book,  besides  that  abova 
quoted,  the  statement  that  those  who  feed  much 
upon  them  discharge  at  their  pores  a  yellow  serum, 
and  that  the  fat  is  yellow,  tastes  like  marrow,  and 
gives  the  skin  a  yellow  hue — a  statement  which 
will  not  surprise  those  who  know  that  the  bones 
of  pigs,  in  whose  food  madder  is  mixed,  become 
colored  accordingly. 

Such  is  Sloane's  account  of  the  Tesludo  marina 
vulgaris  of  Ray  ;  Jurucua  Brasiliensibus,  and  Tat- 
taruga  Lusitanis,  of  the  same  ;  Tortue  franche  of 
Rochefort,  Du  Tertre,  and  Labat. 

He  then  describes  the  Tcstudo  marina  Caou- 
anna  dicta,  Tortue  caouanne,  Rochef.  Labat,  Ray, 
Kaouanne  of  Du  Tertre,  calling  it  the  Hawksbill 
turtle,  describing  it  as  "  very  little  differing  from 
the  common  sea  sort,  only  in  every  part  less," 
and  "  not  so  good  victuals  as  the  former,  though 
as  common  in  these  seas."  This  is  probably  the 
Loggerhead  turtle  of  authors. 

Sloane  then  gives  an  account  of  the  Testudo 
caretla  dicta,  which  I  take  to  be  the  true  hawksbill 
turtle,  and  of  which,  he  says,  they  "are  chiefly 
valued  for  their  scales,  commonly  called  tortoise 
shell  ;  and  are  found  with  the  others." 

Pere  Labat  speaks  of  la  tortue  franche,  the 
green  turtle,  as  "  la  seule  espece  qui  soit  verita- 
blement  bonne  a  manger  ;"  of  le  caret,  the  hawks- 
bill,  as  furnishing  "ecaille  de  tortue:" — "  sa 
chair,"  he  adds,  "  n'est  pas  bonne  a  manger;" 
he  speaks  of  it  as  "  d'une  qualite  purgative,"  as 
the  good  father  found  to  his  cost ;  and  indulgence 
in  it  nearly  cost  a  reverend  brother  his  life. 

Of  la  caouanne,  the  loggerhead,  he  writes  with 
more  correctness  than  Sloane,  who  probably  saw 
only  young  specimens,  that  it  is  "  plus  grande  que 
les  deux  autres.  Son  ecaille  ne  vaut  rien.  Sa 
chair  n'est  pas  meilleure,elle  est  toujours  maigre, 
filasseuse,  coriace,  et  de  mauvaise  odeur.  On  ne 
laisse  pas  de  la  sailer  pour  les  Negres,  &  qui  tout 
est  bon." 

It  is,  .perhaps,  too  much  to  say,  that  the  tor- 
toiseshell  of  the  loggerhead  is  entirely  worthless, 
though  it  is  comparatively  valueless ;  and,  in- 
deed, that  of  the  hawksbill  is  very  inferior  to  the 
true  article  produced  by  Chelone  imbricata. 

Labat  tells  us,  that  those  who  go  to  the  turtle 
islands  or  other  localities  to  fish  for  the  green  and 
hawksbill  turtles,  live  on  the  flesh  of  turtles  only 
for  three  or  four  months,  without  bread,  without 
cassava — with  nothing,  in  short,  but  the  fat  and 
lean  of  those  animals  ;  and  he  declares  that,  what- 
ever maladies  these  men  may  have  when  they  set 
out  upon  this  expedition,  even  if  they  should  be 
affected  with  the  most  loathsome,  they  return  per- 
fectly cured. 


92 


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He  describes  at  some  length  the  methods  of 
capture.  The  first  is,  to  watch  them  when  they 
go  to  lay  their  eggs*  in  the  sand,  or  when  they 
come  to  reconnoitre  ;  and  he  says,  that  if  their 
traces  are  observed  on  the  sand,  and  the  observer 
go  to  the  same  place  on  the  seventeenth  day  after- 
wards, he  will  infallibly  find  the  turtle  come  for 
the  purpose  of  depositing  her  burden.  She  is  then 
turned  on  her  back,  and,  being  unable  to  regain  her 
usual  position,  is  safe.  But  though  a  green  turtle 
thus  turned  is  secure,  because  her  carapace  is  com- 
paratively flat,  a  hawksbill  left  in  such  a  posture  is 
no  more  safe  than  a  galapagos  tortoise  when  laid 
on  its  back,  because  the  carapace  of  the  hawksbill 
is  more  convex,  and  the  animal  itself  more  active  ; 
the  operator,  therefore,  after  turning  the  turtle, 
places  great  stones  round  it,  so  as  to  counteract  its 
efforts  to  regain  its  natural  posture,  or,  as  the 
hawksbill  is  only  sought  for  its  shell,  the  flesh 
being  comparatively  worthless,  it  is  killed  on  the 
spot. 

The  worthy  father  gives  a  hint  to  turtle-turners 
to  beware  of  their  jaws,  for  they  bite,  particularly 
the  hawksbill,  (caret,)  furiously;  and,  if  they  can- 
not take  out  the  piece,  will  not  let  go  while  they 
have  life.  The  turtle-turners,  therefore,  carry  a 
little  bludgeon  with  them,  with  which  they  give 
the  patient  a  rap  on  the  head  before  they  proceed 
to  turn  it. 

The  second  method  of  taking  them  is  by  strik- 
ing them  with  a  sort  of  spear  or  harpoon  (varre) 
when  they  come  to  the  surface  to  breathe,  or  there 
lie  asleep.  The  adventurers  go  at  night  gener- 
ally, where  they  have  observed  much  cut  turtle- 
grass  floating,  for  that  is  a  certain  sign  that  the 
place  is  the  haunt  of  turtles,  who  cut  the  grass  in 
feeding,  and  some  of  it  rises  to  the  surface.  The 
rest  shall  be  told  in  the  words  of  the  graphic  nar- 
rator : — 

Celai  qui  tient  la  varre  est  sur  le  bout  on  la 
proue  du  canot.  Le  mot  de  varre  est  Espagnol,  il 
signifie  une  gaule  ou  perche  ;  celle  dont  on  se  sert 
en  cette  peche  est  de  sept  a  huit  pieds  de  longueur 
et  d'un  bon  pouce  de  diametre,  a  peu  pres  comme 
la  hampe  d'une  halebarde.  On  fait  entrer  dans  un 
des  bouts  un  cloud  carre"  de  sept  a  huit  pouces  de 
long  y  compris  la  douille  dont  il  fait  partie,  cette 
douille  a  une  boucle  ou  anneau  de  fer,  ou  simple- 
ment  un  trou,  oil  est  attachee  une  longue  corde 
proprement  roulee  sur  1'avant  du  canot,  oil  un  des 
bouts  est  aussi  attache,  et  la  hampe  est  aussi  at- 
tachee a  une.  autre  petite  corde  dont  le  varreur  tient 
un  bout.  Le  varreur  done  e*tant  debout  sur  1'avant 
du  canot,  la  varre  a  la  main  droite,  examine  tout 
autour  de  lui  s'il  voit  paroitre  quelque  tortue,  ce 
qui  est  assez  ais6  dans  la  nuit,  parce  qu'on  voit 
bouilloner  la  surface  de  1'eau  a  1'endroit  oil  la  tor- 
tue veut  lever  la  tete  pour  souffler,  ou  si  la  tortue 
dort  sur  1'eau,  ou  qu'un  male  soit  attache  a  une 
femelle,  ce  qu'on  appelle  un  cavalage,  Pecaille  qui 
reluit  et  qui  renechit  la  lumiere  de  la  lune  ou  des 
e*toiles  la  lui  fait  appercevoir  aussitot,  a  quoi  on 

*  According  to  Labat,  a  turtle  of  ordinary  size  lays  as 
many  as  two  hundred  and  fifty  eggs,  of  the  size  of  ten- 
nis-balls, and  as  round.  The  white,  he  says,  never 
hardens,  however  lo  z  it  may  be  submitted  to  cookery, 
hut  the  yolk  becomes  hard,  like  that  of  the  common  fowl. 


doit  ajouter  que  dans  les  nuits  les  plus  obscurs,  il 
reste  toujours  sur  la  surface  de  la  terre  et  des  eaux 
un  peu  de  lumiere  qui  est  suffisant  a  ceux  qni  se 
couchent  sur  le  ventre  pour  voir  a  une  distance 
assez  considerable  autour  d'eux.  Des  qu'il  apper- 
$oit  la  tortue,  il  marque  avec  le  bout  de  sa  varre  a 
celui  qui  conduit  le  canot,  le  lieu  oii  il  faut  aller  ; 
et  quand  il  est  a  portee  de  la  tortue  il  la  varre,  c'est 
a  dire,  il  la  frappe  et  la  perce  avec  le  cloud  qui  est 
ante  dans  la  hampe.  Aussitot  que  la  tortue  se  sent 
blessee,  elle  fuit  de  toutes  ses  forces,  et  elle  en- 
traine  avec  elle  le  canot  avec  une  tres  grande  vio- 
lence ;  le  cloud  qui  est  entre  dans  son  ecaille  ne  la 
quitte  pas,  et  le  varreur  qui  a  retire  sa  hampe,  s'en 
sert  pour  enseigner  a  celui  qui  est  a  1'arriere  ou  il 
doit  gouverner.  A  pres  qu'elle  a  bien  couru  les 
forces  lui  manquent,  souvent  meme  elle  etouffe 
faule  de  venir  sur  1'eau  pour  respirer.  Quand  le 
varreur  sent  que  la  corde  mollit,  il  la  retire  peu  a 
peu  dans  le  canot,  et  s'approchant  ainsi  de  la  tortue 
qu'il  a  fait  revenir  de  1'eau,  morte  ou  extremement 
affaiblee,  il  la  prend  par  une  partie  et  son  com- 
pagnon  sur  1'autre  et  ils  la  mettent  dans  le  canot, 
et  en  vont  chercher  une  autre. 

II  n'est  pas  necessaire  qu'il  y  ait  des  ardillons  au 
fer  de  la  varre,  ni  que  le  varreur  fasse  entrer  le  fer 
gueres  plus  avant  que  1'epaisseur  de  1'ecaille,  parce 
qu'aussitot  que  la  tortue  sent  la  douleur  que  le  cloud 
lui  fait  en  percant  son  ecaille,  elle  se  resserre  da 
telle  fagon  qu'on  a  bien  plus  de  peine  a  retirer  le 
cloud  qu'on  en  avoit  eu  a  le  faire  entrer. 

The  great  rapidity  with  which  one  of  these  rep 
tiles  will  run  away  with  a  boat  ceases  to  be  sur- 
prising when  it  is  remembered  that  they  are  fre- 
quently found  three  feet  and  a  half  or  four  feet 
long,  and  two  feet  or  two  feet  and  a  half  wide, 
weighing  three  hundred  pounds,  and  often  more. 
Labat,  who  makes  this  observation,  remarks  that  it 
is  astonishing  that  wherever  they  are  set  down  on 
land  on  their  plastron,  however  distant  they  may 
be  from  the  sea,  to  the  sea  they  go  without  seek- 
ing about,  without  hesitation,  and  in  the  most  direct 
line.  The  jolly  Jesuit  relates  that  he  sometimes 
had  the  pleasure  of  bestriding  a  turtle  with  another 
person,  when  it  carried  them  without  difficulty, 
and  sufficiently  fast. 

Mais  (he  adds)  c'est  une  voiture  des  plus  rudes, 
car  comme  elle  ne  peut  se  soutenir  sur  ses  quatre 
pattes  toute  a  la  fois,  elle  eleve  le  train  de  devant, 
et  semble  egratigner  la  terre  en  s'elangant,  pendant 
que  les  pieds  de  derriere  poussent  en  avant  en  fai- 
sant  un  effort  qui  produit  un  mouvement  qui  secoue 
et  qui  fatigue  infiniment. 

He  tells  a  story  of  an  Indian,  slave  to  M.  de  la 
Chardonniere.  The  slave  was  alone  in  a  small 
canoe,  fishing  with  a  line,  when  he  saw  a  turtle 
asleep  on  the  surface  of  the  sea.  He  quietly  ap- 
proached, and  passed  a  noose  of  a  stout  cord,  which 
he  chanced  to  have  with  him,  round  one  of  the  pad- 
dles of  the  turtle,  the  other  end  of  the  cord  being 
made  fast  to  the  bow  of  the  canoe.  The  turtle 
awoke,  and  set  off  with  all  speed,  and  at  first  the 
Indian  was  under  no  apprehension  at  the  rapidity 
with  which  he  was  carried  out  to  sea.  Sitting  in 
the  stern  of  his  canoe,  he  steered  with  his  paddle 
so  as  to  avoid  the  waves,  Hoping  that  the  turtle 
would  either  get  tired  or  be  suffocated.  But,  alas ! 


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93 


he  got  capsized,  or,  as  Jack  says,  turned  the  turtle, 
losing  his  paddle,  his  knife,  and  all  his  fishing 
tackle.  Active  as  he  was,  he  had  all  the  difficulty 
in  the  world  to  right  his  canoe.  While  he  was 
hard  at  work  doing  this,  the  turtle  was  acquiring 
fresh  strength  and  vigor,  and  when  he  had  righted 
his  little  bark  it  was  soon  upset  again.  In  short, 
this  happened  nine  or  ten  times  within  a  day  and 
two  nights,  during  which  he  was  towed  by  the 
turtle  without  the  possibility  of  cutting  or  detach- 
ing the  cord.  At  last  this  tartar  of  a  turtle  got 
tired,  and,  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  made  for  a 
shoal,  where  the  Indian  managed  to  kill  it,  being 
himself  half  dead  with  hunger,  thirst,  and  fatigue. 

The  third  mode  of  capture  noticed  by  Labat  is 
by  setting  nets,  colored  red  so  that  the  turtles  may 
not  detect  them,  near  the  sandy  shores  where  they 
go  to  lay  their  eggs  ;  and  he  was  present  when,  in 
the  evening,  the  nets  were  spread  for  a  grande 
pcche.  He  describes  the  nature  of  their  oil  or  fat 
to  be  so  penetrating,  that  if  it  is  placed  on  one  side 
of  the  hand,  and  rubbed  in  with  a  hot  cloth,  it  will 
make  its  way  to  the  opposite  side,  and  praises  it  as 
excellent  for  rheumatism. 

Catesby,  in  his  Natural  History  of  Canada,  Flor- 
ida, and  the  Bahama  Islands,  says  : — 

The  sea-tortoise  is  by  our  sailors  vulgarly  called 
turtle,  whereof  there  are  four  distinct  kinds ;  the 
green  .turtle,  the  hawksbill,  the  loggerhead  turtle, 
and  the  trunk  turtle.  They  are  all  eatable  ;  but 
the  green  turtle  is  that  which  all  the  inhabitants  in 
America,  that  live  between  the  tropics,  subsist 
much  upon.  They  much  excel  the  other  kinds  of 
turtle,  and  are  in  great  esteem  for  the  wholesome 
and  agreeable  food  they  afford. 

Catesby  was  a  good  observer,  and  his  informa- 
tion may  be  generally  relied  on.  He  tells  us  that 
all  sorts  of  turtle,  except  the  loggerhead,  are  tim- 
orous, and  make  little  resistance  when  taken  ;  but 
that  all  the  kinds  during  the  season  of  love  are  very 
furious  and  regardless  of  danger.  The  male  and 
female,  he  says,  usually  remain  together  about 
fourteen  days. 

After  describing  the  structure  of  the  limbs  as 
more  fitted  for  swimming  than  walking,  he  remarks 
that  .'  .«',,' 

They  never  go  on  shore  but  to  lay  their  eggs, 
which  is  in  April ;  they  then  crawl  up  from  the 
sea,  above  the  flowing  of  high  water,  and  dig  a- 
hole  above  two  feet  deep  in  the  sand,  into  which 
they  drop  in  one  night  above  an  hundred  eggs  ; 
at  which  time  they  are  so  intent  on  nature's  work, 
that  they  regard  none  that  approach  them,  but  will 
drop  their  eggs  in  a  hat,  if  held  under  them ;  but 
if  they  are  disturbed  before  they  begin  to  lay,  they 
will  forsake  the  place  and  seek  another.  They  lay 
their  eggs  at  three,  and  sometimes  at  four,  differ- 
ent times,  there  being  fourteen  days  between  every 
time.  *  *  When  they  have  laid  their  complement 
of  eggs,  they  fill  the  hole  with  sand,  and  leave  them 
to  be  hatched  by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  which  is  usu- 
ally performed  in  about  three  weeks. 

His  description  of  the  mode  of  capture  varies 
little  from  that  of  Labat,  except  that  he  says  noth- 
ing of  nets. 

7 


The  inhabitants  of  the  Bahama  Islands,  by  oftei 
practice,  are  very  dexterous  in  catching  them,  par- 
ticularly the  green  turtle.  In  April  they  go  ii> 
little  boats  to  the  coast  of  Cuba,  and  other  neigh- 
boring islands,  where,  in  the  evening,  especially  in 
moonlight  nights,  they  watch  the  going  and  return 
ing  of  the  turtle  to  and  from  their  nests  ;  at  which 
time  they  turn  them  on  their  backs,  where  they 
leave  them  and  proceed  on  turning  all  they  meet, 
for  they  cannot  get  on  their  feet  again  when  once 
turned.  Some  are  so  large  that  it  requires  three 
men  to  turn  one  of  them.  The  way  by  which  tur- 
tle are  most  commonly  taken  at  the  Bahama  Islands, 
is  by  striking  them  with  a  small  iron  peg  of  two 
inches  long  ;  this  peg  is  put  in  a  socket  at  the  end 
of  a  staff  twelve  feet  long.  Two  men  usually  set 
out  for  this  work  in  a  little  light  boat  or  canoe ; 
one  to  row  and  gently  steer  the  boat,  while  the 
other  stands  at  the  head  of  it  with  his  striker.  The 
turtle  are  sometimes  discovered  by  their  swimming 
with  their  head  and  back  out  of  the  water ;  but 
they  are  oftenest  discovered  lying  at  the  bottom,  a 
fathom  or  more  deep.  If  the  turtle  perceives  he  is 
discovered,  he  starts  up  to  make  his  escape ;  the 
men  in  the  boat  pursuing  him  endeavor  to  keep 
sight  of  him,  which  they  often  lose,  and  recover 
again  by  the  turtle  putting  his  nose  out  of  the  water 
to  breathe  ;  thus  they  pursue  him,  one  paddling  or 
rowing,  while  the  other  stands  ready  with  his 
striker.  It  is  sometimes  half  an  hour  before  he  is 
tired ;  then  he  sinks  at  once  to  the  bottom,  which 
gives  them  an  opportunity  of  striking  him,  which 
is  by  piercing  the  shell  of  the  turtle  through  with 
the  iron  peg,  which  slips  out  of  the  socket,  but  is 
fastened  by  a  string  to  the  pole.  If  he  is  spent 
and  tired  by  being  long  pursued,  he  tamely  sub- 
mits when  struck  to  be  taken  into  the  boat  or  hauled 
ashore.  There  are  men  who  by  diving  will  get  on 
their  backs,  and  by  pressing  down  their  hind  part, 
and  raising  the  fore  part  of  them  by  force,  bring 
them  to  the  top  of  the  water,  while  another  slips  a 
noose  about  their  necks. 

There  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.  Hear 
Pliny  through  the  quaint  pen  of  Philemon  Holland  : 

Many  waies  the  fishermen  have  to  catch  them, 
but  especially  in  this  manner  ;  they  use  in  the 
morning,  when  the  weather  is  calm  and  still,  to 
flote  aloft  upon  the  water,  with  their  backs  to  be 
seen  all  over ;  and  then  they  take  such  pleasure  in 
breathing  freely  and  at  libertie  that  they  forget 
themselves  altogether ;  insomuch  as  their  shell  in 
this  time  is  so  hardened  and  baked  with  the  sun, 
that  when  they  would  they  cannot  dive  and  sinke 
under  the  water  again,  but  are  forced  against  their 
wills  to  flote  above,  and  by  that  meanes  are  exposed 
as  a  prey  unto  the  fishermen.  Some  say  that  they 
go  forth  in  the  night  to  land  for  to  feed,  where 
with  eating  greedily  they  be  wearie  ;  so  that  in 
the  morning,  when  they  are  returned  again,  they 
fall  soon  asleep  above  the  water,  and  keepe  such  a 
snorting  and  routing  in  their  sleepe,  that  they  be- 
wray where  they  be,  and  so  are  easily  taken ;  and 
yet  there  must  be  three  men  about  every  one  of 
them ;  and  when  they  have  sworn  unto  the  tor- 
toise, two  of  them  turn  him  upon  his  backe,  the 
third  casts  accord  or  halter  about  him,  as  hee  lyeth 
with  his  belly  upward,  and  then  is  he  haled  by 
many  more  together  to  the  land. 

In  the  South  Seas  skilful  divers  get  under  the 
turtles,  and  surprise  them  when  so  floating. 

The  spirit-stirring  salmon-hunt  in  Redgauntlet 


96 


LEAVES   FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF    A   NATURALIST. 


sea-tortoises,  must  be  reminded  that  the  sphargis, 
as  its  name  implies,*  is  so  far  from  being  mute, 
that  it  utters  sounds  very  near  akin  to  the  bellow- 
ings  of  distress  when  entangled  in  the  fatal  net, 
OT  oppressed  with  wounds.  The  carapace  and 
plastron,  with  its  longitudinal,  string-like  lines  or 
ribs,  may  have  suggested  the  lyrical  name  accord- 
ed to  the  species.  We  have  said  enough  to  put 
those  hungry  gentlemen  on  their  guard  who  may 
feel  disposed  to  consign  it  to  the  tureen.  It  at- 
tains a  great  size.  Individuals  weighing  700  and 
800  pounds  have  been  taken  on  our  coasts. 
These  were  stragglers  ;  but  instances  are  on  rec- 
ord of  their  having  been  captured,  temptingly  fat, 
of  the  weight  of  1500  or  1600  pounds.  Nor  do 
some  of  the  species  of  chelone  stop  at  that  point 
with  which  the  lovers  of  turtle  are  familiar. 
Some  of  that  genus  have  been  taken  with  a  cara- 
pace measuring  nearly  seven  feet  in  length,  and 
more  than  fifteen  feet  in  circumference  ;  and  have 
turned  the  scale  against  from  800  to  900  pounds. 

When  first  hatched,  the  shells  of  the  young 
turtles  are  said  to  be  comparatively  imperfect,  and 
the  little  animals  have  a  blanched  appearance. 
Their  welcome  upon  emerging  into  the  light,  as 
they  swarm  out  of  the  sand  like  ants  from  an  ant- 
hill, is  but  a  rough  one  ;  and  few  young  animals 
are  surrounded  with  more  dangers.  They  in- 
stinctively make  for  the  sea,  but  their  numbers 
are  greatly  reduced  by  predatory  birds  and  other 
enemies  before  it  is  reached  ;  and  there  and  then 
the  hungry  fishes  wait  for  them  open-mouthed. 
Still,  as  in  the  case  of  all  other  races,  the  issue 
of  the  battle  of  life  is  in  their  favor,  till  the  species 
dies  out,  like  the  extinct  colossochelys,  (Falconer,) 
•whose  weight  must  have  been  something  enor- 
mous, or,  like  that  chimera-like  form  of  the  ancient 
world,  in  which  Nature  seems  freakishly  to  have 
united  the  sauto-chelysian,  or  half-lizard,  half- 
tortoise  shape,  with  the  canines  of  a  walrus.f 

The  testudinata  figure  largely  in  the  ancient 
pharmacopoeia,  and  they  seem  to  have  a  claim  to 
the  patronage  of  the  deities  of  health  equal,  at 
least,  to  that  of  the  serpents.  They  must,  more- 
over, have  been  the  terror  of  the  Canidias  of  the 
time. 

The  flesh  of  land-tortoises  serveth  wel  in  per- 
fumes and  suffumigations,  for  so  it  is  as  good  as  a 
countercharm  to  put  by  and  repell  all  sorceries  and 
inchantments ;  a  singular  counterpoison  also  to 
resist  any  venome  whatsoever.  Great  store  of  tor- 
toises be  found  in  Affricke  ;  where  they  use  to  cut 
away  the  head  and  feet,  and  then  employ  the  rest  of 
the  body  as  a  soveraigne  remedy  against  all  poysons. 

Tortoise  pottage  appears  to  have  rivalled  viper 
brtth  :— 

If  their  flesh  be  eaten  together  with  the  broth 
•wherein  they  are  sodden,  it  is  held  to  be  very  good 
fer  to  discusse  and  scatter  the  wens  called  the 
King's  Evil,  and  to  dissipat  or  resolve  the  hard- 

Sifaqayita,  to  otter  a  loud  sound  or  roar, 
t  Dicynodon.     Discovered  by  A.  G.  Bain,  Esq..   in 
sandstone  rocks  at  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  Africa  ; 
named  and  described  by  Professor  Owen  in  Trans.  Geol. 
Soc.,  vol.  vii.,  part  2. 


nesse  of  the  swelled  spleene  ;  likewise  to  cure  the 
falling  sicknes,  and  to  drive  away  the  fits  thereof. 
The  bloud  of  tortoises  clarifieth  the  eyesight  and 
dispatcheth  the  cataracts,  if  they  be  anointed  there- 
with. Many  incorporat  the  said  bloud  in  meale, 
and  keep  them  reduced  into  the  forme  of  pils ; 
which,  when  need  requireth,  they  give  in  wine  as 
a  present  help  for  the  poyson  of  all  serpents,  spiders, 
and  such  like,  yea,  and  the  venom  of  toads.  The 
gail  of  tortoises  mixt  with  Atticke  hony,  serveth 
to  cure  the  fiery  rednesse  of  the  eyes,  if  they  be 
anointed  therewith  ;  the  same  is  good  to  be  dropt 
into  the  wounds  inflicted  by  the  prick  of  scorpions. 
The  ashes  of  the  tortoise  shel  incorporat  with  wine 
and  oile,  and  so  wrought  into  a  salve,  heals  the 
chaps  and  ulcers  of  the  feet. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  miracles  of  healing 
effected  by  the  application  of  this  panacea  of  the 
Roman  apothecary's  shop. 

Nor  are  the  remedies  incorporated  in  the  tur- 
tles— the  "  sea-tortoises" — a  whit  less  powerful  or 
numerous.  We  spare  the  catalogue  of  cures, 
which  those  who  are  curious  may  read  in  the 
marvellous  pages  of  him  who  has  been  called  the 
martyr  of  nature  ;  only  out  of  our  benevolence, 
and  by  way  of  throwing  those  numerous  specifics 
for  the  toothache  that  adorn  those  towering  nuis- 
ances, the  advertising  vans,  into  the  shade,  in- 
forming the  afflicted  that,  "  Whosoever  rubbeth 
their  teeth  with  tortoise  bloud,  and  use  so  to  do  a 
whole  yeare  together" — remember  that — "  shal  be 
freed  from  the  pain  thereof  for  ever."* 

The  ancient  mariner — not  Coleridge's — believed 
that  the  foot  of  a  tortoise  put  on  board  would  stop 
the  way  of  the  ship  ;  and  the  housewife  of  other 
days  had  no  doubt  that  the  shell  of  a  tortoise 
placed  on  the  pot  as  it  simmered  over  the  fire 
would  prevent  it  from  boiling  over. 

The  tortoise  of  ancient  fable  was  sufficiently 
sage,  except  when  he  prevailed  on  the  eagle  to 
give  him  a  lesson  in  flying,  and  suffered  accord- 
ingly. To  say  nothing  of  his  race  with  the  hare, 
he  was  eminently  reflective  as  well  as  persevering. 
And  though  he  was  tempted  to  murmur  at  first 
when  he  saw  the  lithe  and  leaping  frogs  clearing 
at  a  bound  a  space  which  cost  him  long  and  sore 
travel,  as  he  dragged  himself  and  his  shell  along 
upon  the  earth — when  he  saw  the  eel  and  king 
stork  at  work  upon  them,  and  how  their  unarmed 
bodies  exposed  them  to  the  stones  thrown  by  a 
mere  child,  he  repented  and  said — "  How  much 
better  to  bear  the  weight  of  this  shielding  shell, 
than  to  be  subject  to  so  many  forms  of  wounds  and 
death."  And  when  he  beheld  lo  dancing  a  frantic 
hornpipe  to  the  tune  of  a  gadfly,  did  he  not  hug 
himself,  and  glancing  at  his  panoply,  exclaim — "  I 
don't  care  for  flies  ?"f 

To  be  sure,  he  was  at  times  more  honest  than 
polite  ;  as  when,  on  receiving  Jove's  command  to 
meet  the  rest  of  animated  nature  on  the  occasion 
of  his  nuptials  with  Juno,  he  returned  the  some- 
what ungracious  answer — oTxos  <piio«,  oTxos  a-giu- 
iot — "  home,  sweet  home  ;  there  's  no  place  like 
home," — a  reply  which  so  roused  the  ire  of  tho 

*  Holland's  Pliny.         t  Non  curat  testudo  muscos. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF    A   NATURALIST. 


97 


father  of  gods  and  men,  that  the  fiat  went  forth — 
"  As  his  home  is  so  dear  to  him,  he  shall  never 
go  out  of  it."  This  was  rather  shocking  at  first ; 
but  our  philosophical  tortoise  bowed  to  the  decree, 
observing,  that  he  much  preferred  carrying  his 
house  about  with  him  to  being  a  fixture,  where 
he  might  be  condemned  to  disturbance  by  the 
quarrels  of  his  neighbors. 

But  why  did  Apelles  paint  his  image  under  the 
feet  of  Aphrodite  ?*  Why  did  Phidias  make  the 
delicate  foot  of  his  chryselephantine  statue  rest 
upon  this  sedentary  emblem  If 

*  Tardigrada,  herbigrada,  domiporta  et  sanguine  cassa, 
Sub  pedibus  Veneris  Cous  quam  pinxit  Apelles. 

This  must  have  been  a  different  picture  from  that  of  the 
celebrated  Venus  Anadyomene  by  the  same  hand,  which 
was,  probably,  in  the  splendid  collection  of  Augustus  be- 
fore he  transferred  the  masterpiece  to  the  temple  dedicated 
by  him  to  Julius  Caesar.  Ovid  notices  a  painting  which 
may  well  pass  for  it,  in  his  description  of  the  finest  works 
in  that  magnificent  palace. —  Trist.  ii.,  527,  528. 
t  In  the  temple  of  Venus  Urania. 


As  a  hint  to  ladies  to  be  quiet,  and  stay  at 
home — excellent  things  in  woman. 

Upon  my  word,  sir  ! 

The  idea,  madam,  I  assure  you,  is  not  mine. 
You  read  Latin  with  the  ease  of  a  Roman  matron. 
No  1  Then  ask  your  husband,  son,  or  brother,  te 
do  the  following  into  English  : — 

Alma  Venus  quaenam  haec  facies,  quid  denotat  ilia 
Tesludo  molli  qua_m  pede,  Diva,  premis  ? 

Me  sic  effinxit  Phidias,  sexumque  referri 
FEemineum  nostra  jussit  ab  effigie. 

Quodque  manere  domi  et  tacitas  decet  esse  puellas, 
Supposuit  pedibus  talia  signa  meis. 

The  women  wore  wooden  images  of  the  reptile 
to  denote  their  silence  and  domesticity,  as  Lais 
knew  to  her  cost,  when  the  Thessalian  matrons 
assassinated  her  with  such  ornaments.  Over- 
zealous  worshippers  were  they  of  the  celestial  Ve- 
nus, the  good,  the  retiring,  the  personification  of  all 
that  is  amiable,  beautiful,  and  modest. 

So  stands  the  statue  that  enchants  the  world. 


FEW  of  those  who  stand  near  some  quarry  in  our 
inland  counties,  surrounded  by  all  the  beauties  of 
British  scenery,  hill,  and  valley,  down  and  field, 
luxuriant  with  woods,  carpeted  with  herbage,  or 
waving  with  corn,  bestow  a  thought  on  the  char- 
acter of  the  rock  beneath.  It  occurs  not  to  many, 
that  where  the  grass  now  grows  and  the  cattle  low 
the  waves  once  flowed  ;  and  that  the  ripple-mark 
may  still  be  seen  on  what  was  once  the  ribbed  sea 
sand. 

To  those  who  are  unacquainted  with  geology, 
it  is  startling  to  be  told  that  the  solid  slab  of  stone 
so  marked,  when  last  exposed  thousands  of  years 
ago,  was  part  of  the  sandy  shore  over  which  the 
animated  beings,  now  blotted  from  the  book  of 
life,  wended  their  way,  leaving,  in  many  cases, 
the  traces  of  their  steps,  just  before  some  great 
convulsion  of  our  planet  changed  the  whole  ap- 
pearance of  the  surface,  but  spared  these  unmis- 
takable records  to  tell  the  tale. 

No  one  with  any  powers  of  generalization  can 
long  study  the  system  of  animated  nature  without 
being  satisfied  that  he  must  search  among  the 
wrecks  of  bygone  ages  for  those  forms  which  are 
required  to  make  it  complete,  and  that  in  the  fossil 
fauna  he  will  find  the  lost  links  of  the  broken  chain. 

Among  the  ichnolites,  or  fossil  foot-prints, 
which  have  attracted  so  much  attention  of  late 
years,  those  announced  by  Dr.  Ogier  Ward,  as 
proving  the  existence  of  a  small  four-footed  ani- 
mal at  the  period  of  the  deposition  of  the  new  red 
sandstone  near  Shrewsbury,  were  brought  under 
the  notice  of  the  British  Association  at  Birming- 
ham. They  most  nearly  resembled  those  figured 
in  the  paper  on  the  new  red  sandstone  of  War- 
wickshire, by  Sir  Roderick  Murchison  and  Mr. 
Strickland,*  but  differed  in  exhibiting  more  distinct 
indications  of  the  terminal  claws,  and  less  distinc- 
tive impressions  of  the  connecting  web  ;  the  inner- 
most toe  was  less,  and  there  was  an  impression 
always  at  a  distance  from  the  fore-toes,  like  a 
*  Geol,  Trans.  Second  Series,  vol.  v.,  pi.  xxviii. 


hind-toe  pointing  backwards,  the  point  of  which 
only  seemed  to  have  touched  the  ground,  remind- 
ing the  observer  of  such  an  impression  as  might 
have  been  made  by  a  wading  bird,  and  of  the 
ornithichnites  discovered  by  Dr.  Hitchcock  in  the 
Connecticut  new  red  sandstone,  which  have  beeu 
referred  to  the  grallatorial  tribe  of  birds. 

The  American  fossil  footsteps  were  found  at  five 
places  near  the  banks  of  the  river,  within  a  distance 
of  thirty  miles,  at  various  depths  beneath  the  su*- 
rounding  surface,  in  quarries  of  laminated  flag- 
stones. The  inclination  of  the  stone  is  from  5°  to 
30°  ;  and  there  is  evidence  to  warrant  the  conclu- 
sion, that  the  tracks  were  impressed  before  the 
strata  were  so  inclined.  Many  of  these  tracks, 
clearly  showing  that  they  belonged  to  different 
individuals  and  species,  cross  each  other  ;  and  the 
footmarks  are  not  unfrequently  crowded  together, 
reminding  one  of  the  impressions  left  by  the  feet 
of  ducks,  geese,  and  other  birds,  on  the  muddy 
shore  of  the  stream  or  pond  frequented  by  them. 
These  footprints  are  referred  by  Professor  Hitch- 
cock to  seven  species  at  least,  if  not  genera,  of 
very  long-legged  wading  birds,  varying  in  size 
from  that  of  a  snipe  to  dimensions  twice  as  great 
as  those  of  an  ostrich.  The  steps  are  seen  ia 
regular  succession  on  a  continuous  track,  as  of  an 
animal  walking  or  running,  the  right  and  left  foot 
always  occupying  their  proper  places.  At  Mount 
Thorn,  near  Northampton,  were  discovered  four 
nearly  parallel  tracks  of  a  gigantic  animal  whose 
foot  was  fifteen  inches  long,  exclusive  of  the  largest 
claw,  which  was  two  inches  in  length.  The  toes 
were  broad  and  thick,  and  in  one  track  appeared 
a  regular  succession  of  six  of  these  steps,  four  feet 
distant  from  each  other.  The  distance  in  other 
tracks  varied  from  four  to  six  feet.  Another  foot- 
mark extended  to  the  length  of  from  fifteen  to 
sixteen  inches,  without  reckoning  a  remarkable 
appendage  extending  backwards  eight  or  nine 
inches  from  the  heel.  The  impressions  of  this 
appendage  present  traces  similar  to  what  may  be 


98 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


made  by  wiry  feathers  or  coarse  bristles ;  these 
last  appear  to  have  sunk  into  the  ground  nearly  an 
inch.  The  toes  had  penetrated  much  deeper,  and 
the  mud  or  sand  appeared  to  have  been  raised  into 
a  ridge  rising  several  inches  around  their  impres- 
sions, reminding  the  observer  of  the  elevation 
round  the  track  of  an  elephant  over  moist  clay. 
Intervals  of  six  feet  were  noted  as  the  length  of 
the  stride  of  the  impressor  of  this  ornithichnite. 
The  bones  of  fishes  only  (Palaothrissum)  had  been 
discovered  in  this  impressed  rock. 

If  Professor  Hitchcock  be  right  in  his  conclusion 
that  these  enormous  foot-prints  are  the  vestiges  of 
feathered  giants,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they 
justify  the  remark  that  they  are  of  the  highest 
interest  to  the  palaeontologist,  as  they  establish  the 
new  fact  of  the  existence  of  birds  at  the  early  epoch 
of  the  new  red  sandstone  formation  ;  and  further 
show  that  some  of  the  most  ancient  forms  of  that 
class  attained  a  size  far  exceeding  that  of  the  largest 
among  the  feathered  inhabitants  of  the  present 
world. 

The  discovery  of  the  bones  of  the  gigantic 
Dinornis,  (Owen,)  have  proved  beyond  all  question 
the  last  conclusion  ;  but  the  student  will  do  well, 
before  he  accepts  the  former,  to  investigate 
thoroughly  Professor  Owen's  papers  on  Labyrin- 
thodon,*  remembering  that  the  toes  of  Dr.  Hitch- 
cock's giant  were  broad  and  thick.  The  footmarks 
of  that  gigantic  batrachian  (Salamandro'ides,  Jager 
— Mastodonsaurus  and  Phytosaurus,  of  the  same — 
Chirotherium,  Kaup)  were  impressed  on  a  shore  ; 
and  in  some  of  the  specimens  of  that  petrified 
strand  were  the  impressions  of  drops  of  rain  that 
had  fallen  upon  the  strata  while  in  the  process  of 
formation.  On  the  surface  of  one  at  Storeton, 
where  the  impressions  of  the  footmarks  were  large, 
the  depths  of  the  holes  made  by  the  rain-drops  on 
different  parts  of  the  same  footstep,  varied  with 
the  unequal  pressure  on  the  clay  and  sand,  accord- 
ing to  the  salient  cushions  and  retiring  hollows 
of  the  animal's  foot.  The  constancy  of  these 
appearances  upon  an  entire  series  of  foot-prints, 
in  a  long  and  continued  track,  showed  that  the 
rain  had  fallen  after  the  creature  had  passed. 

The  equable  size  of  the  casts  of  large  drops  that 
cover  the  entire  surface  of  the  slab,  (says  Dr. 
Buckland,  in  his  address  to  the  Geological  Society 
of  London  on  this  phenomenon,)  except  in  the 
parts  impressed  by  the  cushions  of  the  feet,  record 
the  falling  of  a  shower  of  heavy  drops  on  the  day 
in  which  this  huge  animal  had  marched  along  the 
ancient  strand  ;  hemispherical  impressions  of  small 
drops  upon  another  stratum  show  it  to  have  been 
exposed  to  only  a  sprinkling  of  gentle  rain  that  fell 
at  a  moment  of  calm.  In  one  small  slab  of  new  red 
sandstone,  found  by  Dr.  Ward  near  Shrewsbury, 
[where  the  remains  which  will  presently  be  alluded 
to  were  found,]  we  have  a  combination  of  proofs  as 
to  metoric,  hydrostatic,  and  locomotive  phenomena, 
which  occurred  at  a  time  incalculably  remote,  in 
the  atmosphere,  the  water,  and  the  quarter  towards 
which  the  animals  were  passing ;  the  latter  is  in- 
dicated by  the  direction  of  the  footsteps  which 

*  Geol.  Trans.    Second  Series. 


form  their  tracks ;  the  size  and  curvatures  of  the 
ripple-marks  on  the  sand,  now  converted  to  sand- 
stone, show  the  depth  and  direction  of  the  current ; 
the  oblique  impressions  of  the  rain-drope  register 
the  point  from  which  the  wind  was  blowing  at  or 
about  the  time  when  the  animals  were  passing. 

But  how  was  this  record  so  firmly  imprinted  on 
the  stone?  The  answer  is  ready  from  the  same 
eloquent  and  accurate  oracle  : — 

The  clay  impressed  with  these  prints  of  rain- 
drops acted  as  a  mould,  which  transferred  the  form 
of  every  drop  to  the  lower  surface  of  the  next  bed 
of  sand  deposited  upon  it,  so  that  entire  surfaces  of 
several  strata  in  the  same  quarry  are  respectively 
covered  with  moulds  and  casts  of  drops  of  rain  that 
fell  whilst  the  strata  were  in  process  of  forma- 
tion.* 

No,  you  are  not  about  to  be  dragged  into  a 
treatise  on  ichnology,  friendly  reader  ;  though, 
believe  me,  you  will  find  the  subject,  pregnant  as 
it  is  with  evidences  of  uncouth  extinct  forms  that 
have  passed  away  from  life  forever,  wending  their 
way  over  the  shores  of  a  half-formed  world,  amid 
wind  and  rain,  storm  and  sunshine,  as  marvellous, 
ay,  and  as  entertaining  too,  as  a  fairy  tale.  You 
are  only  to  be  led  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
ichnolites  from  the  Shrewsbury  sandstone,  as  a  fit 
introduction  to  the  crocodiles,  which  will  next 
claim  your  attention. 

Professor  Hitchcock,  as  we  have  seen,  undoubt- 
edly claims  his  ichnolites  as  due  to  the  presence 
of  birds  on  the  spot  where  they  were  impressed  ; 
but,  as  Professor  Owen  well  observes,  any  evidence 
of  a  warm-blooded  and  quick-breathing  class  of 
animals  at  so  remote  a  period  as  the  new  red 
sandstone  epoch,  requires  to  be  very  closely  sifted  ; 
and,  accordingly,  the  chance  of  obtaining  any 
analogical  facts,  bearing  upon  Professor  Hitch- 
cock's ornithichnites,  induced  our  professor  to 
spare  no  exertions  to  obtain  further  insight  into 
the  problematical  creature  of  the  Grinsill  quar- 
ries. 

Dr.  Ward  kept  a  sharp  eye  upon  the  quarrying 
operations ;  and  soon,  in  addition  to  the  footsteps, 
fossils  were,  from  time  to  time,  found,  secured, 
and  liberally  sent  up  to  the  professor,  who  was 
thus  enabled  to  form  a  clear  opinion  of  the  animal 
that  had  impressed  the  sands  with  its  feet.  The 
result  was,  the  professor's  Description  of  an  Ex 
tinct  Lacertian  Reptile,  Rhynchosaurus  articeps, 
(Owen,)  of  which  the  bones  and  foot-prints  charac- 
terize the  Upper  New  Red  Sandstone  at  Grinsill 
near  Shrewsbury,  published  in  the  seventh  volume 
of  The  Transactions  of  the  Cambridge  Philosophical 
Society.  For  the  highly  interesting  details  of 
this  masterly  paper  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the 
.  memoir  itself,  which  will  well  repay  an  attentive 
perusal ;  suffice  it  to  say,  that  this  rhynchosaur 
turned  out  to  be  neither  crocodilian,  batrachian, 
nor  chelonian,  though,  in  a  degree,  allied  to  each 
of  those  tribes,  and  that  the  fortunate  preservation 

*  Address  delivered  lo  the  Geological  Society  of  London 
on  the  2lst  February,  1840,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Buckland, 
D.  D.,  President. 


LEAVES    FROM   THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF.  A    NATURALIST. 


99 


of  the  skull  brought  to  light  modifications  of  the 
lacertine  structure  leading  towards  the  tortoises 
and  birds,  which  were  before  unknown. 

Before  we  sketch  the  natural  history  of  the 
crocodiles,  it  may  not  be  unamusing  to  pass 
rapidly  in  review  some  of  the  legends  with  which 
the  ancients  connected  a  form  selected  by  the 
Egyptians  as  the  symbol  of  a  cruel  and  revengeful 
being.  The  horrible  shape  and  detestable  dispo- 
sition ef  the  crocodile  made  it  an  apt  representa- 
tive of  the  murderer  of  Osiris  ;*  and  when  it  was 
regarded  as  the  personification  of  Typhon,  it  must 
be  confessed  that  it  looked  the  character  of  that 
evil  one  well,  as  any  one  will  allow  who  looks  on 
the  devilish  woodcut  that  surmounts  the  old  French 
quatrain  : — 

Lc  Nil  produit  des  monstres  perilleux, 
Lors  que  d'Egypte  arrouse  le  pais. 
Mais  centre  ceux,  dont  sommes  esbahiz, 
Le  crocodile  est  le  plus  merveilleux. 

The  sculptor  has  done  his  best  to  make  the 
monster  look  decent  as  he  appears  on  the  robe  of 
the  Nile  in  the  celebrated  statue  ;  but  one  of  the 
surrounding  sixteen  typical  children  finds  himself 
rather  inconveniently  near  the  open  mouth  of  the 
destroyer,  and  is  represented  as  starting  back  ac- 
cordingly ;  while  another  lends  him  a  hand  to 
help  him  out  of  the  dangerous  neighborhood. 
Poor  old  Nilus  !  he  must  have  had  warm  work  to 
keep  his  crocodiles  in  anything  like  order  when 
the  terror-stricken  son  of  Clymene  was  hurried 
by  his  father's  runaway  horses  he  knew  not  where, 
and  the  quiet,  steady  Moon  beheld  with  amaze- 
ment her  brother's  chariot  dashing  along  beneath 
her  own.  The  crocodilian  commotion  under  that 
smoking  state  of  things  must  have  been  the  cause 
of  his  extremity  of  horror,  for  the  Tanais,  the 
Ca'icus,  the  Lycormas,  the  Xanthus,  the  Maeander, 
the  Euphrates,  the  Ganges,  the  Danube,  the  Is- 
menus,  the  Phasis,  the  Tagus,  the  Caister,  whose 
swans  then  sung  their  last  and  died  ;  the  Rhine, 
the  Rhone,  the  Tiber — all  suffered  equally,  and 
stood  their  ground  ;  but, 

Nilus  in  extremum  ftfgit  perterritus  orbem 
Occuluitque  caput,  quod  adhuc  latet. 

Father  Thames  was  happily  out  of  the  way,  or 
not  sufficiently  known  to  the  polite  world  on  that 
occasion.  His  turn,  however,  is  at  hand.  A 
foreign  prince  and  priest,  shot  from  his  proper 
sphere,  is  coming  down  upon  him  ;  but  we  will 
venture  to  prophesy  that  he  will  not  run  away 
like  the  affrighted  Nile,  but  continue  to  go  be- 
tween his  banks  and  look  the  Archbishop  of  West- 
minster boldly  in  the  face. 

As  the  serpents  had  their  Psylli,  so  the  croco- 
diles had  their  Tentyrita  : — 

Moreover,  there  is  a  kind  of  people  that  cary  a 
deadly  hatred  to  the  crocodile,  and  they  be  called 
Tentyrites,  of  a  certain  isle  even  within  Nilus, 

*  Osiris,  the  popular  divinity,  the  ruler  of  the  Nile,  the 
benign  dispenser  of  plenty,  had,  for  his  antagonist  and 
destroyer,  Typhon,  the  scorching  desert  wind,  that  dried 
up  the  fructifying  waters,  bearing  famine  and  death  on 
its  wings,  when  it  unseasonably  prevailed. 


which  they  inhabite.  The  men  are  but  small  of 
stature,  but  in  this  quarrell  against  the  crocodiles 
they  have  hearts  of  lions,  and  it  is  wondrous  to  see 
how  resolute  and  courageous  they  are  in  this  be- 
halfe.  Indeed  this  crocodile  is  a  terrible  beast  to 
them  that  flie  from  him  ;  but,  contrary,  let  men 
pursue  him  or  make  head  againe,  he  runnes  away 
most  cowardly.  Now,  these  islanders  be  the  only 
men  that  dare  encountre  him  in  front.  Over  and 
besides,  they  will  take  the  river,  and  swim  after 
them  ;  nay,  they  will  mount  upon  their  backs,  and 
set  them  like  horsemen  ;  and  as  they  turn  their 
heads,  with  their  mouths  wide  open  to  bite  or 
devour  them,  they  will  thrust  a  club  or  great  cud- 
gell  into  it  crosse  overthwart,  and  so  holding  hard 
with  both  hands  each  end  thereof,  the  one  with  the 
right,  and  the  other  with  the  left,  and  ruling  them 
perforce  (as  it  were)  with  a  bit  and  bridle,  bring 
them  to  land,  like  prisoners  ;  when  they  have  them 
there,  they  will  so  fright  them  only  with  their 
words  and  speech,  that  they  compel  them  to  cast 
up  and  vomit  those  bodies  againe  to  be  enterred, 
which  they  had  swallowed  but  newly  before.  And 
therefore  it  is,  that  this  is  the  only  isle  which  the 
crocodiles  will  not  swim  to  ;  for  the  very  smell  and 
sent  of  these  Tentyrites  is  able  to  drive  them  away, 
like  as  the  Pselli,  with  their  savor,  put  serpents  to 
flight.  By  report  this  beast  seeth  but  badly  in  the 
water  ;  but  be  they  once  without,  they  are  most 
quick-sighted.  All  the  four  winter  months  they 
live  in  a  cave  and  eat  nothing  at  all.  Some  are  of 
opinion  that  this  creature  alone  groweth  all  his  life  ; 
and  surely  a  great  time  he  liveth.* 

To  say  nothing  of  more  ordinary  methods  of 
capture,  if  a  crocodile  was  only  touched  with  the 
feather  of  an  ibis  it  instantly  became  motionless  ; 
and  there  was  another  mode,  if  old  chroniclers  are 
to  be  believed,  not  unworthy  of  note.  It  was 
thought  a  bitter  and  bright,  as  well  as  a  novel 
idea,  when  some  ill-conditioned  scapegrace  sent  a 
looking-glass  to  an  importunate  Gorgon,  who  was 
qualified  for  admission  into  the  Ugly  Club — if  any 
woman  ever  was,  which  we,  with  all  gallantry 
and  humility,  doubt — in  the  hope  that  the  first 
look  at  herself  would  be  fatal.  But  here  again 
we  have  the  old  adage,  Pereant  qui  ante  nos,  &c. 
"  There  is  nothing  new,"  &c.,  forced  upon  us. 
The  sure  way  to  settle  a  crocodile,  according  to 
ancient  practice,  was  to  confront  him  with  a  mir- 
ror, when  he  incontinently  died  of  fright  at  his 
own  deformity. 

"  Crocodile  tears"  have  become  a  proverb 
somewhat  musty ;  and  yet  everybody  may  not 
know  that  there  was  another  version  besides  the 
vulgar  one,  of  working  upon  the  kind-hearted 
traveller  by  apparent  distress,  getting  him  within 
reach,  and  then  destroying  him.  It  was  held  for 
certain  that  when  a  crocodile  had  got  hold  of  a 
man  and  killed  him,  it  consumed  its  prey  com- 
fortably enough  till  it  came  to  the  head,  which 
would  have  proved  too  hard  a  nut  for  our  crocodile1 
to  crack,  without  pouring  forth  a  copious  shower 
of  tears  as  a  solvent,  which  softened  the  skull, 
and  put  the  ravenous  reptile  in  easy  possession  of 
its  tit-bit — the  brain. 

One  of  their  horrible  functions,  among  the  In- 

*  Pliny. 


100 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


Jians,  was  to  act  as  the  finishers  of  the  law  in 
capital  cases,  as  elephants  were  employed  by 
Asiatic  autocrats  not  very  many  years  since,*  but 
in  a  different  manner,  as  may  be  well  supposed. 
The  crocodile-executioners  were  kept  without  food 
when  judgment  of  death  was  anticipated  ;  and  the 
condemned  wretch  was  dragged  to  the  tank,  where 
the  hungry  monsters  glared  at  him  with  their 
green  cannibal  eyes,  as  the  assistants  deliberately 
bound  him  hand  and  foot,  and  then  tossed  him  alive 
to  the  chasms  of  their  gaping,  serrated,  clanking 
jaws.  They  were  also  retained  as  guards  in 
Pegu  ;  the  ditches  of  the  fortifications  being  filled 
with  them. 

The  Quaxliones  crocodiliiue,  those  plica;  et  serrcc 
dialecticorum,  as  they  have  been  called,  took  their 
rise  from  certain  stories  in  which  the  crocodile 
figures.  For  instance,  a  woman  was  taking  a 
walk  with  her  little  son  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  ; 
a  lurking  crocodile  carried  him  off,  saying,  he 
should  be  restored  if  his  mother  responded  truly. 

"Do  I  mean  to  give  him  up?"  asked  the 
crocodile. 

"  No,  you  don't,"  answered  the  mother ;  "  and, 
therefore,  according  to  your  rule,  you  ought." 

Whether  the  mother  ever  got  her  son  back 
must  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  those  who  have 
been  made  to  feel  how  many  points  of  the  law  are 
centred  in  possession,  especially  where  crocodiles 
are  concerned. 

The  same  story  is  the  foundation  of  the  croco- 
diline  question  put  in  Lucian's  dialogue  : — 

"  Have  you  a  son  ?" 

"What  then?" 

"  If  he  was  wandering  near  a  river,  and  a  croco- 
dile should  find  him  and  carry  him  off,  but  should 
promise  to  restore  him  upon  your  giving  a  true 
answer  to  the  question,  whether  it  was  intended  to 

*  Mr.  Sirr,  in  his  entertaining  book,  Ceylon  and  the 
Cingalese,  (8vo.  London,  1850,  Shoberl,)  mentions  a 
striking  instance  of  the  docility  of  one  of  these  elephants. 

During  the  reign  of  the  last  blood-stained  king  of 
Kandy,  the  terrible  custom  which  had  long  prevailed  of 
execution  by  elephants,  who  were  trained  to  prolong  the 
suffering  of  the  doomed  criminal  by  crushing  the  limbs 
before  the  coup  de  grace  was  given,  prevailed. 

One  of  the  elephant-executioners  was  at  that  place 
during  Mr.  Sirr's  sojourn  there,  and  he  was  desirous  of 
testing  the  sagacity  and  memory  of  the  brute.  It  was  of 
huge  size,  and  mottled,  and  stood  quietly  with  the  keeper 
seated  on  its  neck.  The  noble,  who  accompanied  Mr. 
Sirr  and  his  party,  desired  the  man  to  dismount  and  stand 
on  one  side. 

The  chief  gave  the  word  of  command—"  Slay  the 
wretch !" 

The  elephant  raised  his  trunk,  and  twined  it  as  if  grasp- 
ing a  human  being,  and  then  made  motions  as  if  he  were 
depositing  the  patient  on  the  earth  before  him,  then  slow- 
ly raised  his  forefoot,  and  placed  it  alternately  upon  the 
spots  where  the  limbs  of  the  sufferer  would  nave  been. 
This  he  continued  to  do  for  some  minutes  ;  and  then,  as 
if  satisfied  that  the  bones  must  be  crushed,  raised  his 
trunk  high  above  his  head,  and  stood  motionless. 

The  chief  said — "  Complete  your  work." 

The  elephant  immediately  placed  one  foot  on  the  place 
where  the  victim's  abdomen  would  have  been,  and  the 
other  upon  the  spot  where  the  head  must  have  rested, 
appearing  to  exert  his  whole  strength  to  crush  the  victim, 
and  trample  out  the  remains  of  life. 

The  tyrant  was  dethroned  in  1815  ;  and  since  that  time 
the  animal  had  never  been  called  upon  to  execute  his 
horrible  office. 


do  so  or  no,  what  would  you  say  were  the  croco- 
dile's intentions?" 

"  You  ask  me  a  perplexing  question,  truly." 

But  almost  everything  has  its  bright  side,  and 
so  has  a  crocodile.  Did  not  one  save  good  King 
Minas  when  he  tumbled  into  the  water  ?  And 
were  they  not  reckoned  admirable  safeguards  for 
preventing  robbers  from  crossing  the  river  ?  In 
short,  they  made  a  very  respectable  figure  among 
the  mob  of  animal  and  vegetable  Egyptian  deities, 
and  were  treated  accordingly,  as  we  shall  pres- 
ently see.  Silence  is  not  only  the  gift,  but  the 
attribute  of  the  gods  ;  and,  as  the  ancients  believed 
that  a  crocodile  had  no  tongue,  he  had  a  pretty 
safe  claim,  which,  joined  to  his  alleged  foreknowl- 
edge of  the  extent  of  the  inundation  of  the  Nile, 
was  all-sufficient  for  his  deification.  Hence,  no 
doubt  existed  of  the  salvation  of  the  man  devoured 
by  one  of  these  reptiles.  The  sure  road  to  heaven 
went  through  a  crocodile's  maw  ;*  and  even 
those  who  were  bitten  by  one  were  considered 
peculiarly  fortunate. 

The  priests  were  not  slow  in  availing  them- 
selves of  these  articles  of  belief,  which  they  them- 
selves had  invented,  and  accordingly  they  took 
care  to  have  tame  Crocodiles  ready  to  receive  the 
offerings  of  the  faithful.  Strabo  saw  one  of  these 
at  Arsinoe,  that  "  city  of  the  crocodiles,"  and  an 
apolaustic  life,  he  seems  to  have  led.  Bread, 
meat,  and  wine,  the  contributions  of  travellers  and 
pious  neighbors,  formed  his  ordinary  diet.  Strabo's 
host — a  man  of  consequence,  and  the  guide  of  the 
party  in  everything  relating  to  sacred  things — led 
the  way  to  the  pond,  carrying  from  the  table  a 
small  cake,  some  roasted  meat,  and  a  cup  of  spiced 
wine  well  mulled.  They  found  Suchos,  in  which 
name  the  crocodile  rejoiced,  stretched  at  his  ease 
on  the  margin.  Straightway  did  the  priests  ap- 
proach him.  Some  opened  his  mouth,  one  acolyte 
popped  in  the  cake,  another  crammed  down  the 
meat,  and  the  whole  was  finished  by  pouring 
down  the  wine ;  when  Suchos  plunged  into  the 
pond  ajid  swam  over  to  the  other  side  to  take  his 
siesta.  If  many  pilgrims  visited  his  shrine  with 
similar  offerings  in  the  course  of  the  day,  the 
deity  must  have  occasionally  afforded  the  awful 
spectacle  of  "  a  drunken  monster,"  second  only  to 
that  of  Lablache's  Caliban. 

What  a  wondrous  piece  of  acting  that  is  !  The 
brutal  passion — the  cunning  ignorance — the  mon- 
ster lower  than  the  man  but  higher  than  the  brute 
— something  between  a  chimpanzee  and  humanity, 
with  a  strong  dash  of  his  devilish  dam  in  him, 
are  brought  out  as  no  actor  but  that  great  artist 
could  portray  them ;  and  when  the  mass  warms 

up  under  the  influence  of  Trinculo's  bottle 

But  words  cannot  convey  the  personification  ;  go 
and  see  him.  Why  will  not  some  gifted  master 
write  a  Sicilian  opera,  if  Ads  and  Galatea  will 
not  suffice,  and  present  Lablache  as  Polyphemus  ? 

*  If  a  person  was  killed  by  a  crocodile,  or  drowned  in 
the  Nile,  his  body  was  embalmed  by  the  priests,  and  de- 
posited in  the  sacred  tombs. 


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101 


All  Europe  would  crowd  to  behold  the  incarna- 
tion of  the  Cyclops. 

But  my  pen  is  running  away  with  me  as  usual, 
and  must  be  brought  back  to  these  well-fed  and 
well-appointed  crocodiles,  which  were  looked  up 
to  with  some  faith  as  oracles  of  divination.  If  the 
crocodile  spontaneously  took  the  cake,  or  other 
food  offered,  it  was  a  good  omen  ;  but  if  the 
offering  was  unheeded  or  rejected,  the  worst 
might  be  expected.  There  was  a  dark  story  that 
the  priests  concluded,  from  such  a  rejection,  that 
Ptolemy's  death  was  near. 

Geoffroy  seemed  to  think  that  the  Suchos  was  a 
mild  and  inoffensive  species,  whose  more  gentle 
nature  led  the  Egyptians  to  deify  and  tame  it ;  but, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  fugitive  characters  relied  on 
by  him  as  constituting  specific  difference — charac- 
ters which  can  hardly  be  viewed  as  indicating 
more  than  variety — it  seems  that  the  three  croco- 
dile mummies,  so  far  from  being  specimens  of 
Geoffrey's  Suchos,  are  identical  with  his  Margina- 
tus  lacunnsus  and  complanatus*  Souc or  Souchis, 
according  to  M.  Champollion,  indicates  the  Egyp- 
tian name  of  Saturn ;  and  Suchos  was,  in  all 
probability,  the  proper  name  of  the  individual  that 
Strabo  saw  at  Arsinoe.  Thus  Apis  was  the 
sacred  bull  of  Memphis ;  that  of  Heliopolis  was 
Mnevis. 

But,  however  this  may  be,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  animal  was  tamed  by  the  ancients  ; 
and  as  little  that  proper  treatment  meets  with  the 
same  success  now.  Plutarch  relates  how  the 
crocodile  can  be  made  obedient  to  the  human  voice 
and  hand,  opening  its  mouth  and  suffering  its 
teeth  to  be  cleaned  with  a  towel. 

Crocodiles,  says  Herodotus,f  are  sacred  with 
some  of  the  Egyptians  ;  but  not  so  with  others, 
who  treat  them  as  enemies.  Those  who  dwell 
about  Thebes  and  the  lake  Mceris  look  on  them  as 
very  sacred  ;  and  they  each  train  up  a  crocodile, 
which  is  rendered  quite  tame.  Into  the  ears  of 
these  crocodiles  they  put  crystal  and  gold  ear- 
rings, and  adorn  their  fore-paws  with  bracelets. 
They  give  them  appointed  and  sacred  food,  treat- 
ing them  as  well  as  possible  while  alive,  and 
when  dead  they  embalm  and  bury  them  in  the 
sacred  vaults.  But  the  people  who  dwell  about 
the  city  Elephantine  eat  them,  not  considering 
them  sacred.  They  are  not  called  crocodiles  by 
the  Egyptians,  but  champse.  The  name  of  croco- 
diles was  given  to  them  by  the  lonians  because 
they  thought  they  resembled  lizards,!  which  are 
found  in  the  hedges  in  their  country.  But  as  the 
crocodile,  in  a  state  of  nature,  was  not  very  likely 

*  Geoffroy  founded  his  C.  complanatus  on  mummies 
which  MM.  Dumeril  and  Bibron  assert  are  clearly  speci- 
mens of  Crocodilus  vulgaris. 

t  Eut.    69. 

t  Koozodetloi.  InKircher's  Egyptian  dictionary,  Pi- 
souchi  is  made — but  upon  no  sound  foundation — the 
Coptic  name  for  a  crocodile.  Emsah,  or  hamsa,  is  stated 
by  the  safest  authorities  to  be  the  Coptic  word  from 
which,  with  the  feminine  article  prefixed,  has  come  the 
Arabic  word  limsati,  now  current  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile.  Herodotus,  who  was  evidently  aware  of  this  name, 
gives  it  under  the  form  of  xapya,  (champsa.) 


to  find  any  careful  attendant  ready  to  rub  his  teeth 
with  a  napkin,  Nature,  it  seems,  has  sent  him  aa 
animated  feathered  tooth-pick. 

The  following,  says  the  Halicarnassian,  is  the 
nature  of  the  crocodile  : — During  the  four  coldest 
months  it  does  not  eat ;  though  it  has  four  feet,  it 
is  amphibious.  It  lays  its  eggs  on  land,  and 
hatches  them  there.  The  greater  part  of  the  day 
is  spent  on  the  dry  ground,  but  the  whole  night 
in  the  river,  for  in  the  night  time  the  water  is 
warmer  than  the  air  and  the  dew.  Of  all  living 
things  of  which  we  know,  this  grows  to  be  the 
longest  from  the  smallest  beginning.  It  lays 
eggs  little  larger  than  those  of  a  goose,  and 
the  young  at  first  is  suitable  in  size  to  the  egg  ; 
but  when  grown,  it  reaches  to  the  length  of 
seventeen  cubits  and  more.  It  has  the  eyes  of  a 
pig,  and  the  teeth  and  projecting  tusks  are  large 
in  proportion  to  the  body.  It  is  the  only  animal 
that  has  no  tongue  ;  it  does  not  move  the  lower 
jaw,  but  is  the  only  animal  that  brings  down  its 
upper  jaw  to  the  under  one.  It  is  furnished  with 
strong  claws,  and  a  skin  covered  with  scales  net 
to  be  broken  on  the  back.* 

With  the  exception  of  the  very  pardonable  mis- 
take generally  current  with  the  ancients,  in  conse- 
quence of  their  being  deceived  by  appearances, 
about  the  absence  of  the  tongue  and  the  want  of 
motion  in  the  lower  jaw,  the  description  above 
given  may  pass  very  creditably  ;  but  then  comes 
a  statement,  for  which  we  have. heard  Herodotus 
branded  as  a  most  daring  fabulist. 

It  is  blind  in  the  water,  continues  the  historian, 
but  very  quick-sighted  on  land  ;  and  because  it 
lives  for  the  most  part  in  the  water  its  mouth  is 
filled  with  leeches.  All  other  birds  and  beasts 
avoid  him,  but  he  is  at  peace  with  the  trochilus, 
because  he  receives  benefit  from  that  bird.  For 
when  the  crocodile  gets  out  of  the  water  on  land 
and  then  opens  its  jaws,  which  it  does  most  com- 
monly towards  the  west,  the  trochilus  enters  its 
mouth  and  swallows  the  leeches  ;  the  crocodile  is 
so  well  pleased  with  this  service  that  it  never 
hurts  the  trochilus. f 

Upon  this  foundation  succeeding  writers  have 
raised  their  fantastic  structures,  and  we  proceed 
to  give  one  or  two  modes  of  telling  the  same 
story  : — 

All  the  day  time  the  crocodile  keepeth  upon  the 
land,  but  he  passeth  the  night  in  the  water  ;  and  in 
good  regard  of  the  season  he  doth  the  one  and  the 
other.  When  he  hath  filled  his  belly  with  fishes, 
he  lieth  to  sleep  upon  the  sands  in  the  shore  ;  and 
for  that  he  is  a  great  and  greedie  devourer,  some- 
what of  the  meat  sticketh  evermore  between  his 
teeth.  In  regard  whereof  cometh  the  wren,  a  lit- 
tle bird  called  there  trochilos,  and  the  king  of  birds 
in  Italy  ;  and  shee  for  her  victuals'  sake,  hoppeth 
first  about  his  mouth,  falleth  to  pecking  or  picking 
it  with  her  little  neb  or  bill,  and  so  forward  to  the 
teeth,  which  he  cleanseth,  and  all  to  make  him 
gap.  Then  getteth  shee  within  his  mouth,  which 
he  openeth  the  wider,  by  reason  that  he  taketh  so 
great  delight  in  this  her  scraping  and  scouring  of 


*  Eut.  68. 


t  Ibid.,  Gary. 


102 


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his  teeth  and  chaws.  Now  when  he  is  lulled  as  it 
were  fast  asleep  with  this  pleasure  and  content- 
ment of  his  ;  the  rat  of  India,  or  ichneumon,  spieth 
his  vantage,  and  seeing  him  lye  thus  broad  gaping, 
whippeth  into  his  mouth,  and  shooteth  himselfe 
downe  his  throat  as  quicke  as  an  arrow,  and  then 
gnaweth  a  hole  through  his  belly,  and  so  killeth 


Scaliger,  somewhat  scandalized  that  Pliny  had 
made  the  bird  a  wren,  was  of  opinion  that  it 
should  be  described ;  and  the  trochilus  then  came 
out  of  the  size  of  a  thrush,  with  an  acute  crested 
feather,  which  it  had  the  power  of  erecting,  so  as 
to  prick  the  palate  of  the  crocodile  if  he  should 
close  his  jaws  and  shut  her  in.  Aldrovand  backs 
this  doctrine  by  a  reference  to  Leo's  work  on 
Africa,  who  declares  that  he  saw  on  the  banks  of 
islands  in  the  middle  of  the  Nile  crocodiles  sun- 
ning themselves,  and  birds,  about  the  size  of  a 
thrush,  flitting  about  them ;  but  after  a  short 
space  the  birds  flew  away.  His  inquiries  were 
answered  by  a  statement  that  portions  of  the  fishes 
and  other  animals  on.  which  the  crocodile  feeds 
stick  about  his  teeth  and  breed  worms,  to  his 
great  torment.  The  birds,  perceiving  the  worms 
when  the  crocodile  gapes,  come  to  feed  upon  them. 
But  the  crocodile,  as  soon  as  he  finds  that  all  the 
worms  are  eaten  up,  closes  his  mouth,  and  at- 
tempts to  swallow  the  bird  that  has  entered,  but, 
being  wounded  by  the  sharp  spine  with  which  the 
head  of  the  bird  is  armed,  gapes  again  and  sets 
the  winged  prisoner  free. 

The  narrative  of  Herodotus  has  received  cor- 
roboration  from  the  pen  of  the  accomplished  author 
of  Visits  to  Monasteries  in  the  Levant.^ 

I  will  relate  (says  Mr.  Curzon,  in  that  amusing 
and  interesting  book)  a  fact  in  natural  history 
which  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  witness,  and 
which,  although  it  is  mentioned  so  long  ago  as  the 
times  of  Herodotus,  has  not,  I  believe,  been  often 
observed  since  :  indeed,  I  have  never  met  with  any 
traveller  who  has  himself  seen  such  an  occur- 
rence. 

I  had  always  a  strong  predilection  for  crocodile- 
shooting,  and  had  destroyed  several  of  these  dragons 
of  the  waters.  On  one  occasion  I  saw,  a  long  way 
off,  a  large  one,  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  long,  lying 
asleep  under  a  perpendicular  bank,  about  ten  feet 
high,  on  the  margin  of  the  river.  I  stopped  the 
boat  at  some  distance ;  and  noting  the  place  as  well 
as  I  could,  I  took  a  circuit  inland,  and  came  down 
cautiously  to  the  top  of  the  bank,  whence  with  a 
heavy  rifle  I  made  sure  of  my  ugly  game.  I  had 
already  cut  off  his  head  in  my  imagination,  and  was 
considering  whether  it  should  be  stuffed  with  its 
mouth  open  or  shut.  I  peeped  over  the  bank ; 
there  he  was  within  ten  feet  of  the  sight  of  the 
rifle.  I  was  on  the  point  of  firing  at  his  eye,  when 
I  observed  that  he  was  attended  by  a  bird  called  a 
zic-zac.  It  is  of  the  plover  species,  of  a  grayish 
color,  and  as  large  as  a  small  pigeon. 

The  bird  was  walking  up  and  down  close  to  the 
crocodile's  nose.  I  suppose  I  moved,  for  suddenly 
it  saw  me,  and  instead  of  flying  away,  as  any  re- 
spectable bird  would  have  done,  he  jumped  up 
about  a  foot  from  the  ground,  screamed  "  Zic-zac ! 

*  Holland's  Pliny.       t  London :  John  Murray.    1849. 


zic-zac!"  with  all  the  powers  of  his  voice,  «ind 
dashed  himself  against  the  crocodile's  face  two  or 
three  times.  The  great  beast  started  up,  and  im- 
mediately spying  his  danger,  made  a  jump  into  the 
air,  and,  dashing  into  the  water  with  a  splash  which 
covered  me  with  mud,  he  dived  into  the  river  and 
disappeared.  The  zic-zac  to  my  increased  admira- 
tion— proud,  apparently,  of  having  saved  his  friend 
— remained  walking  up  and' down,  uttering  his  ery, 
as  I  thought,  with  an  exulting  voice,  and  standing 
every  now  and  then  on  the  tips  of  his  toes  in  a  con- 
ceited manner,  which  made  me  justly  angry  with 
his  impertinence.  After  having  waited  in  vain  for 
some  time,  to  see  whether  the  crocodile  would  come 
out  again,  I  got  up  from  the  bank  where  I  was  ly- 
ing, threw  a  clod  of  earth  at  the  zic-zac,  and  came 
back  to  the  boat,  feeling  some  consolation  for  the 
loss  of  my  game  in  having  witnessed  a  circumstance 
the  truth  of  which  has  been  disputed  by  several 
writers  on  natural  history. 

The  crocodile's  protector  was  actuated,  doubt- 
less, by  that  self-interest  which  governs  so  many 
social  compacts ;  and  Herodotus,  when  he  de- 
scribes the  bird  as  freeing  the  crocodile  from  his 
troublesome  parasites,  only  records  an  alliance 
which  is  far  from  uncommon  in  the  history  of  an- 
imals. To  say  nothing  of  the  familiar  instances 
of  the  daws,  magpies,  and  starlings,  that  attend 
upon  our  sheep  and  horned  cattle,  there  are  more 
close  alliances  founded  on  a  reciprocity  of  benefits. 
Such,  among  the  warm-blooded  vertebrated  ani- 
mals, is  the  connection  between  the  Buphaga 
erythrohyncha — the  beef-eater  of  the  English,  the 
pique-bceuf  of  the  French — and  the  oxen,  camels, 
and  antelopes,  which  it  frees  from  the  larva  that 
burrow  in  their  hides,  for  which  service  its  feet 
and  beak  are  admirably  adapted — the  feet,  armed 
with  strong  claws,  affording  a  firm  hold  on  the 
back  of  the  animal,  and  the  beak,  fashioned  so  as 
to  dig  and  extract  the  maggots  as  neatly  as  an  in- 
strument combining  the  qualities  of  a  lancet  and 
forceps,  in  skilful  surgical  hands,  could  perform 
the  operation.  Such  are  the  rhinoceros  birds 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Gumming.  Even  among  the 
molluscous  animals  we  have  the  association  of  the 
pinna  and  the  crab. 

The  rhinoceros  birds  were  just  as  attentive  to 
their  charge  as  the  guard  which  deprived  Mr. 
Curzon  of  his  "  ugly  game."  A  native  had  in- 
formed Mr.  Gumming  that  a  white  rhinoceros  was 
lying  asleep  in  thick  cover,  and  he  accompanied 
his  guide  to  the  spot.  The  rhinoceros  was  lying 
asleep  beneath  a  shady  tree,  and  his  appearance 
reminded  Mr.  Gumming  of  an  enormous  hog. 
The  beast  kept  constantly  flapping  his  ears,  which, 
he  says,  rhinoceroses  invariably  do  when  sleeping. 
But  before  he  could  reach  the  proper  distance  to 
fire,  several  rhinoceros  birds  by  which  he  was  at- 
tended warned  him  of  his  impending  danger  by 
sticking  their  bills  into  his  ear,  and  uttering  their 
harsh,  grating  cry.  Thus  aroused,  he  suddenly 
sprang  to  his  feet,  crashed  away  through  the  jun- 
gle at  a  rapid  rate,  and  Mr.  Gumming  saw  him 
no  more.  But  it  appears  that  it  is  not  to  the 
rhinoceros  alone  that  these  guardians  do  good 
service. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


103 


These  rhinoceros-birds  (continues  our  mighty 
banter)  are  constant  attendants  upon  the  hippopot- 
amus and  the  four  varieties  of  rhinoceros,  their 
object  being  to  feed  upon  the  ticks  and  other  par- 
asitic insects  that  swarm  upon  these  animals. 
They  are  of  a  grayish  color,  and  are  nearly  as 
large  as  a  common  thrush  ;  their  voice  is  very  sim- 
ilar to  that  of  the  mistletoe  thrush.  Many  a  time 
have  these  ever-watchful  birds  disappointed  me  in 
my  stalk,  and  tempted  me  to  invoke  an  anathema 
en  their  devoted  heads.  They  are  the  best  friends 
the  rhinoceros  has,  and  rarely  fail  to  awaken  him, 
even  in  his  soundest  nap.  "  Chuckuroo"  perfectly 
understands  their  warning,  and,  springing  to  his 
feet,  he  generally  looks  about  him  in  every  direc- 
tion, after  which  he  invariably  makes  off.  I  have 
often  hunted  a  rhinoceros  on  horseback,  which  led 
me  a  chase  of  many  miles,  and  required  a  number 
of  shots  before  he  fell,  during  which  chase  several 
of  these  birds  remained  by  the  rhinoceros  to  the 
last.  They  reminded  me  of  mariners  on  the  deck 
of  some  bark  sailing  on  the  ocean,  for  they  perched 
along  his  back  and  sides  ;  and  as  each  of  my  bul- 
lets told  on  the  shoulder  of  the  rhinoceros  they 
ascended  about  six  feet  into  the  air,  uttering  their 
harsh  cry  of  alarm,  and  then  resumed  their  position. 
It  sometimes  happened  that  the  lower  branches  of 
trees,  under  which  the  rhinoceros  passed,  swept 
them  from  their  living  deck,  but  they  always  re- 
covered their  former  station  ;  they  also  adhere  to 
the  rhinoceros  during  the  night,  I  have  often  shot 
these  animals  at  midnight  when  drinking  at  the 
fountains,  and  the  birds,  imagining  they  were 
asleep,  remained  with. them  till  morning,  and  on 
my  approaching,  before  taking  flight,  they  exerted 
themselves  to  their  utmost  to  awaken  Chuckuroo 
from  his  deep  sleep. 

Geoffroy  was  of  opinion,  and  others  agree  with 
him,  that  the  Egyptian  dotterel!,*  first  described 
by  Hasselquist,  is  the  trochilos  of  Herodotus  ;  and 
it  is  a  curious  instance  of  the  perverseness  of 
systematists  that  they  should  have  pressed  the 
last-mentioned  name  into  their  service  to  designate 
those  volatile  animated  gemsf  which  shoot  by  like 
meteors  in  that  western  world  which  was  unknown 
to  the  ancients,  and  to  which  these  brilliant  birds 
are  exclusively  confined.  Linnaeus,  who  gives 

*  Ckaradrius  jEgyptius,  Linn.  Hamet,  Hippo's  care- 
ful and  intelligent  attendant,  when  told  what  Herodotus 
and  Aristotle  had  stated  on  this  subject,  expressed  his 
disbelief  of  the  story,  but  said  he  knew  the  bird,  which 
he  described  pretty  accurately.  Mr.  Mitchell  took  him 
down  to  the  museum,  in  the  garden,  when  he  at  once 
pointed  out  Hoplopterus  spinosus,  a  spur-winged  dotterell 
or  plover,  as  the  bird  he  meant.  This  species,  it  appears, 
is  constantly  found  in  the  places  where  the  crocodiles 
land,  and  runs  about  hunting  tor  insects — small  mollusca, 
perhaps,  and  such  things— when  the  crocodiles  are  lying 
asleep.  The  appearance  of  the  hunter  immediately  ex- 
cites a  noisy  note  from  the  plover,  the  crocodile  wakes, 
and  the  natives  believe  that  the  bird  is  the  crocodile's 
friend  and  watchman.  The  Sheigea  Arabs  call  this  bird 
El  sngda;  the  natives  of  Dongola  call  it  El'  um  tisaad, 
which,  being  interpreted,  means  the  cousin  or  niece  of 
the  crocodile.  Mr.  Curzon's  narrative  leads  to  the  in- 
ference of  a  much  more  intimate  connexion  between  the 
bird  and  the  crocodile  than  a  mere  cry  at  the  approach  of 
danger.  The  spur  on  each  of  the  wings  of  hoplopterus  is 
nearly  half  an  inch  long.  The  reader  will  remember,  in 
one  of  the  versions  of  the  story,  the  sharp  spine  with 
which  the  bird  is  said  to  be  armed,  and  which  Leo  places 
on  its  head. 

t  The  humming-birds— TrockUidcc  and  Trochilius  of 
modern  ornithologists— inhabiting  America  and  the  West 
India  islands. 


the  Egyptian  dotterell  a  place  among  his  charadrii, 
(plovers,)  makes  no  sign  as  to  its  being  the  trochi- 
lus  of  Herodotus,  and  he  adopts  that  word  as  the 
specific  name  of  the  common  wren  of  our  hedges.* 

In  the  grand  battle  between  the  hippopotami 
and  the  crocodiles,  represented  on  the  plinth  of 
the  statue  of  Nilus,  a  somewhat  long-billed  but 
rather  corpulent  long-legged  bird  seems  ready  to 
come  to  the  assistance  of  a  crocodile,  which  has  a 
hippopotamus  fast  by  the  nose.  Another  and 
similar  bird  stands  calmly  before  an  open-mouthed 
crocodile.  If  the  sculptor  intended  these  for 
trochili,  they  have  not  much  of  the  wren  about 
them,  nor  of  the  plover  either.  They  may  have 
been  meant  for  ibises  looking  on  at  the  row. 

Hasselquist  declares  that  the  crocodiles  do  in- 
expressible mischief  to  the  common  people  of 
Upper  Egypt,  often  killing  and  devouring  women 
who  come  to  the  river  to  fetch  water,  and  children 
playing  on  the  shore  or  swimming  in  the  river. 
He  relates  that  in  the  stomach  of  one  dissected 
before  Mr.  Barton,  the  English  consul,  the  bones 
of  the  legs  and  arms  of  a  woman,  with  the  rings 
which  Egyptian  women  wear  as  ornaments,  were 
found.  The  fishermen,  whose  nets  are  broken  by 
the  crocodiles  if  they  come  in  his  way,  are,  he 
says,  often  exposed  to  great  danger  from  those 
terrible  monsters. 

Sonnini  relates  that  they  are  formidable  to  the 
inhabitants,  and  that  in  some  places  they  are 
obliged  to  form  in  the  river  an  enclosure  of  stakes 
and  fagots,  that  the  women,  in  drawing  water, 
may  not  have  their  legs  carried  off  by  the  croco- 
diles. The  Catholics,  he  adds,  are  persuaded 
that  those  hideous  destroyers  will  attack  a  Mus- 
sulman, but  forbear  to  injure  a  Christian,  and 
bathe  without  fear  in  the  Nile,  while  the  Mahome- 
tans, acknowledging  the  miracle,  dare  not  expose 
themselves  there. 

After  alluding  to  the  veneration  which  the 
crocodile  experienced  in  some  parts  of  Egypt  in 
remote  times,  and  the  fury  with  which  it  was  pur- 
sued and  destroyed  in  others,  Sonnini  remarks 
that  in  his  time  the  crocodile  was  neither  rever- 
enced nor  destroyed.  Banished  to  the  most  south- 
ern part  of  Egypt,  they  assemble  there,  he  says, 
in  vast  numbers.  They  are  to  be  seen  when  the 
sun  is  at  its  height,  their  head  above  the  water, 
immovable,  and  appearing  at  a  distance  like  large 
pieces  of  floating  wood,  gliding  slowly  down  with 
the  current  and  basking  in  the  heat,  in  which  they 
delight.  He  shot  several,  approaching  very  close, 
which,  as  they  were  not  often  disturbed,  he  was 
able  to  do  ;  but  he  does  not  appear  to  have  bagged 
any  like  Mr.  Cumming,  with  whose  best  and 
worst  dog  the  crocodiles  of  South  Africa  made  off. 
In  the  neighborhood  of  Thebes,  the  small  boat  in 
which  Sonnini  sailed  up  the  river  was  often  sur- 
rounded by  crocodiles.  They  saw  the  party  pass 
with  indifference,  neither  discovering  fear  nor  any 
cruel  intent  at  the  approach  of  the  voyagers.  The 
noise  of  the  musket-shot  alone  disturbed  their 
tranquillity.  Sonnini  asserts  that  they  never  rise 
*  Motacilla  trochilus. 


104 


LEAVES    FROM   THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF    A    NATURALIST. 


upon  vessels,  and  that,  how  little  soever  the  gun- 
wales may  be  raised  above  the  water,  nothing 
is  to  be  apprehended  from  their  attacks.  But  he 
advises  the  navigator  to  avoid  thrusting  his  arms 
or  legs  into  the  stream,  or  he  will  run  the  risk 
of  getting  them  snapped  off  by  the  sharp-pointed 
teeth  of  the  crocodiles.  Very  alert  in  the  water, 
which,  he  says,  they  cleave  with  rapidity,  they 
make,  according  to  him,  but  slow  progress  on 
dry  land  ;  and  were  it  not  that  their  slime  color 
and  the  coat  of  mud  with  which  they  cover  them- 
selves in  walking  along  the  miry  shores  of  the 
Nile,  disguise  them  so  as  to  render  them  less  per- 
ceptible, and  thus  expose  men  to  be  surprised  by 
them,  they  are,  he  declares,  by  no  means  so  dan- 
gerous out  of  the  watery  element,  in  which  they 
are  stronger  and  more  at  liberty. 

The  portrait  of  the  ichneumon  "  que  les  Egyp- 
tiens  nomment  Rat  de  Pharaon,"  is  given  in  the 
Portraits  d'Animaux,*  with  the  following  morsel 
of  poesy : — 

Voy  le  portrait  du  Rat  de  Pharaon, 

Q,ui  chasse  aux  rats,  comme  fait  la  Belette  ; 

Au  demeurant  fort  cauteleuse  beste, 

Qui  autrement  est  nominee  Ichneumon. 

But  not  a  word  is  said  about  the  romance  of  its 
leaping  into  the  gaping  mouths  of  crocodiles,  glid- 
ing into  their  bellies,  and  eating  their  way  out  of 
the  entrails  of  the  reptiles,  which  the  ancient  au- 
thors and  many  of  the  moderns  loved  to  dwell 
upon,  but  which  Sonnini  treats  with  the  contempt 
that  it  deserves.  The  natural  food  of  the  ichneu- 
mons consists  of  rats,  birds,  eggs,  and  reptiles  ; 
and  if  some  of  them  have  been  seen  springing  on 
little  crocodiles  with  fury  when  presented  to  them, 
the  act  was  the  effect  of  their  general  appetite  for 
such  game  generally,  and  not  of  a  particular  an- 
tipathy. It  would,  as  Sonnini  observes,  be  at 
least  equally  reasonable  to  say  that  their  mission 
on  earth  was  to  prevent  the  too  great  propagation 
of  .chickens,  to  which  they  are  far  more  hostile 
than  to  crocodiles.  In  his  time,  and  in  more 
than  half  of  northern  Egypt,  that  is  to  say,  in 
that  part  comprised  between  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  and  the  city  of  Siout,  ichneumons  were  very 
common,  although  there  were  no  crocodiles  there  ; 
while  they  were  more  rare  in  Upper  Egypt, 
where  the  crocodiles  were  more  numerous.  The 
great  scourge  of  the  crocodiles  is  a  tortoise  called 
thirse  by  the  Arabians — one  of  the  Potamians, 
probably — which,  when  the  little  crocodiles  just 
hatched  repair  to  the  river,  springs  upon  them 
and  devours  them.  Persons  of  undoubted  veraci- 
ty at  Thebais  told  Sonnini  that  out  of  fifty  young 
crocodiles,  the  produce  of  one  hatching,  seven 
only  had  escaped  the  thirse,  which  is  also  a  keen 
devourer  of  the  crocodile's  eggs.  Seven  little 
crocodiles,  each  eleven  inches  long,  were  brought 
to  the  French  traveller  when  he  was  at  Kous. 
Their  teeth  were  already  very  sharp,  and  they 
appeared  to  have  come  into  the  world  with  the 
true  crocodile  spirit.  The  Egyptian  who  took 
them  said  that  there  were  about  fifty  of  them  to- 

*  1657. 


gether,  but  that  it  was  impossible  to  catch  them 
all  because  the  mother  arrived  unexpectedly,  and 
was  eager  to  fly  at  him.  From  such  small  begin- 
nings are  these  enormous  monsters  developed. 
Sonnini  saw  at  Negaude  the  skin  of  a  crocodile 
thirty  feet  long  and  four  broad  ;  and  he  was  as- 
sured that  some  had  been  found  in  the  Nile  of  the 
length  of  fifty  feet.  One  thing  is  certain,  that 
the  number  of  teeth  was  as  great  in  the  newly- 
hatched  reptiles  as  in  those  that  had  attained  to 
that  enormous  size. 

Herodotus*  gives  an  amusing  account  of  the 
bait  with  which  the  ancient  fishermen  bobbed 
for  crocodiles.  Having  well  covered  his  hook 
with  the  chine  of  a  hog,  he  makes,  according  to 
the  historian,  a  cast  into  the  middle  of  the  river  ; 
and  then  producing  a  young  live  pig  on  the 
bank,  he  beats  it  till  he  makes  it  squeal.  The 
crocodile,  attracted  by  the  piercing  cry,  goes  in 
the  direction  whence  it  proceeds,  meets  with  the 
baited  hook,  swallows  it,  is  struck,  in  angling 
phrase,  and  the  tackle  being  none  of  the  finest,  is 
drawn  bodily  to  land.  But  when  the  crocodile  is 
there  the  angler  would  have  but  a  hard  time  of  it, 
if  he  did  not  instantly  set  to  work  to  plaster  up 
the  eyes  of  his  game  with  mud.  When  he  has 
done  this,  it  is  managed  very  easily  ;  but  he  has  a 
world  of  trouble  before  the  operation  is  completed. 
Hasselquist  found  a  fishing-hook  in  the  palate 
of  one  which  he  dissected  ;  and  the  eggs  which 
he  procured,  larger  than  that  of  a  hen  but  less 
than  that  of  a  goose,  covered  with  a  hard  crust,  of 
a  rugged  surface,  and  of  a  cloudy  white  color, 
were  taken  out  of  a  female  thirty  feet  long. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  Roman  popu- 
lace, whose  cry  for  novelty  at  the  great  shows 
only  equalled  that  for  bread,  would  be  familiar- 
ized with  the  monsters  of  the  Nile  : — 

Marcus  Scaurus  was  the  first  man  who,  in  his 
plaies  and  games  that  he  set  out  in  his  aedileship, 
made  a  show  of  one  water-horse  and  four  croco- 
diles, swimming  in  a  poole  or  mote  made  for  the 
time  during  these  solemnities.! 

This  seems  to  have  been  a  zoological  exhibi- 
tion, and  nothing  more  ;  but  the  crocodiles  were 
soon  brought  forward  for  more  cruel  purposes,  and 
to  pander  to  the  popular  lust  for  blood.  Augustus 
turned  six-and-thirty  into  the  amphitheatre  at  once. 
The  shout  raised  by  the  thousands  who  beheld  that 
monstrous  entrance,  could  only  have  been  equalled 
by  the  breathless  silence  with  which  they  saw  the 
bold,  calm  gladiators  advance  upon  their  frightful 
antagonists.  The  bestiarii,  who  were  sworn  to  face 
any  living  thing  that  their  lord  and  master  chose  to 
oppose  to  them,  did  their  butcherly  duty  that  day, 
for  not  one  of  the  thirty-six  was  left  alive. 

Most  probably  the  conquerors  feasted  on  them 
afterwards,  for  there  was  a  saying  that 

A  crocodile  is  good  meat, 
All  save  the  head  and  feet ; 

though  a  little  musky,  perhaps  ;  and  the  head  was 


*  Eut.  70. 


t  Holland's  Pliny. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


105 


not  without  its  use  in  the  Roman  pharmacopoeia,  as, 
for  instance  : — 

The  eie-teeth  of  the  said  crocodile  filled  up  with 
frankincense,  (for  hollow  they  be,)  and  tied  to  any 
part  of  the  body,  put  by  those  periodicall  fevers 
which  use  to  return  at  sett  and  certaine  hours ;  but 
then  the  patient  must  not  for  five  dayes  together 
see  the  party  who  fastened  the  same  about  him. 
And  they  report  likewise,  that  the  little  gravel 
stones  taken  out  of  their  belly  be  of  the  same  vertue 
to  drive  away  the  shaking  fits  of  agues  when  they 
are  comming,  which  is  the  cause  that  the  JEgyp- 
tians  use  ordinarily  to  anoint  their  sicke  folk  with 
the  fat  of  this  beast. 

The  blood  administered  to  the  eyes  was  supposed 
to  promote  clearness  of  vision.  The  fat  bore  a  high 
price,  for  he  who  was  anointed  with  it  might  fear- 
lessly dive  in  the  Nile,  though  surrounded  by  croco- 
diles. It  was  reckoned  excellent  good  for  the  bites 
of  serpents,  according  to  Dioscorides  ;  and  Leo 
lauds  its  efficacy  in  the  case  of  old  ulcers,  and  even 
of  cancers.  Boiled  in  water  with  vinegar,  it  was 
held  a  sovereign  remedy  for  the  toothache,  if  the 
patient  washed  his  face  with  the  decoction  ;  and  no 
doubt  it  did  the  sufferers  as  much  good  as  any  nos- 
trum now  advertised.  The  skin,  if  carried  round 
fields  or  gardens,  and  afterwards  suspended  there, 
was  held  to  be  a  sure  defence  against  approaching 
hailstorms.  In  modern  times  not  only  is  the  musk 
of  the  glands  held  precious,  (or  was,  not  long  ago,) 
but  other  parts  of  the  animal  were  used  for  medici- 
nal purposes.  Hasselquist  notices  the  "  folliculus," 
of  the  bigness  of  a  hazel  nut,  under  the  shoulders  of 
the  old  crocodiles,  containing  a  thick  matter  which 
smells  like  musk.  The  Egyptians,  he  says,  are 
very  anxious  to  get  this  when  they  kill  a  crocodile, 
it  being  a  perfume  much  esteemed  by  the  grandees, 
but  Hasselquist  did  not  find  one  in  any  that  he  dis- 
sected. He  states  that  the  Egyptians  use  the  fat 
against  the  rheumatism  and  stiffness  of  the  tendons, 
esteeming  it  a  powerful  remedy  outwardly  applied. 

He  mentions  the  gall,  as  being  considered  good 
for  the  eyes  ;  and  that,  and  the  eyes  of  the  crocodiles 
themselves,  as  used  by  the  Egyptians  for  purposes 
about  which  we  care  not  to  be  particular. 

I  am  not  aware  that  a  true  crocodile  has  ever 
been  exhibited  alive  in  this  country.  I  never  saw 
one,  though  I  have  seen  many  alligators  of  all 
sizes.  It  would  not  be  very  difficult  to  bring  over 
a  Nilotic  crocodile  ;  and  if  the  Zoological  Society 
of  London  were  to  show  one  with  its  attendant  dot- 
terell  and  the  hippopotamus,*  the  attraction  would 

*  6th  Oct. — I  to  the  Zoological  Garden,  and  in  my  way 
to  the  hippopotamus  came  upon  a  late  hatch  of  six  young 
black  swans  not  long  out  of  the  egg,  walking  with  their 
affectionate  mother,  the  proud  father  strutting  in  advance 
ready  to  do  battle  with  all  comers,  and  looking  as  if  he 
defied  the  world.  Looked  in  upon  Jenny  Lind,  who  had 
broken  her  horn  at  the  base,  or  rather  loosened  it  at  the 
suture,  so  that  it  went  cmite  back.  But  the  keeper  set  it 
cleverly,  and  it  is  now  in  place,  exalted,  like  that  of  her 
namesake  by  Brother  Jonathan  ;  so  that  she  carries  her 
head  as  proudly  and  symmetrically  as  any  giraffe  of 
them  all. 

Tho  great  tortoise  had  cuddled  into  a  corner  of  his 
house,  as  if  he  felt  the  approach  of  winter. 

Hippo  was  in  his  bath.  When  he  sinks  he  puts  back 
his  ears,  and  closes  them  to  keep  out  the  water.  A  large 


be  strong.  The  clever  keepers  of  that  establish- 
ment would  soon  reconcile  them  to  each  other,  and 
present  another  "  united  happy  family"  to  the  won- 
dering spectators. 

Without  wearying  the  reader  with  anatomical 
details,  we  would  draw  attention  to  certain  pecu- 
liarities in  the  organization  of  the  crocodilian 
family,  which  are  not  only  essential  to  its  well- 
being,  but  indicate  that  approximation  of  one 
form  to  another  of  which  every  observer  who  stud- 
ies animated  nature  is  constantly  reminded. 

The  cervical  vertebrae  are  furnished  with  a  sort 
of  false  ribs,  which  impede  lateral  motion ;  and, 
indeed,  the  general  structure  of  the  vertebral  col- 
umn, as  far  as  the  pelvis,  combined  with  the  ab- 
dominal ribs,  renders  it  difficult  for  the  crocodilidee 
to  bend  their  bodies  sideways  ;  whence  the  notion 
of  throwing  them  out  when  in  pursuit  by  doub- 
ling back.  There  is  a  story  of  an  Englishman 
running  before  a  large  alligator  which  came  out 
of  the  lake  Nicaragua,  and  was  gaining  on  him 
fast.  He  would  have  been  soon  overtaken  by  his 
grim  pursuer,  had  not  some  Spaniards  called  to 
him  to  run  in  a  circle  and  baffle  it  by  compell- 
ing it  to  resort  to  the  laborious  operation  of  turn- 
ing, if  it  should  be  bent  on  continuing  the  pur- 
suit. That  an  alligator  can  bend  its  body  and 
tail  so  as  to  bring  head  and  tail  together  I  have 
proved.  I  took  an  alligator  between  five  and  six 
feet  long,  at  the  Zoological  Garden  in  the  Re- 
gent's Park,  by  the  tail,  and  lifted  it  off  its  legs, 
when,  by  what  certainly  appeared  to  be  a  violent 
effort,  it  bent  its  body  so  as  to  reach  my  hand  with 
its  head.  I  had  a  glove  on,  but  the  reptile  bit  it 
through,  without,  however,  wounding  my  hand. 

The  abdominal  ribs,  which  form  a  sort  of  plas- 
tron for  the  protection  of  the  belly,  in  addition  to 
the  false  and  ordinary  ribs,  do  not  reach  up  to  the 
spine,  and  seem  to  be  the  result  of  an  ossification 
of  the  tendinous  portion  of  the  recti  muscles. 
True  clavicles  there  are  none,  but,  as  in  the  rest 
of  the  Saurian  tribe,  the  coracoi'd  apophyses  are 
attached  to  the  breast-bone.  The  lungs  of  rep- 
tiles generally  reach  down  into  the  abdomen  ;  but 
such  is  not  the  case  with  the  crocodilians,  and 

vegetable  marrow  was  thrown  to  him  by  Hamet.  He 
mumbled  it  for  some  time  in  the  water,  and  below  the 
surface  as  well  as  above,  making  an  impression  on  the 
fruit  but  not  breaking  it.  When  below  the  surface  he 
would  let  it  out  of  his  mouth,  and  then  rise  after  it  as  it 
floated  to  the  top,  trying  his  young  teeth  upon  it.  At 
last  his  vegetable  appetite  appeared  to  be  roused.  He 
brought  it  to  one  of  the  steps  of  his  bath,  and,  reposing, 
set  to  work  upon  it  in  good  earnest,  with  all  but  his  head 
still  in  the  water,  succeeded  in  breaking  it,  bit  off  pieces, 
chewed  them  with  a  slow,  champing,  snapping  motion, 
without  any  lateral  grinding,  and  swallowed  them.  He 
had  previously  been  offered  green  maize,  which  he 
mumbled,  broke,  and  played  with,  but  did  not  eat,  so  far 
as  I  could  see.  Boiled  carrots  and  kohl-rube  were  more 
to  his  taste  ;  and  he  had  eaten  freely  of  them  before  the 
experiment  of  the  raw  vegetable  marrow  was  made.  All 
this  looks  like  a  healthy  state  of  stomach,  and  I  cannot 
help  hoping  that  his  careful  attendants  will  bring  him 
through  the  winter.  He  was  rather  fractious  at  first  on 
being  left,  but  is  now  reconciled  to  the  absence  of  his 
kind  Hamet  at  night,  and  sleeps  by  himself  very  com- 
fortably. In  short,  his  conduct  entirely  justifies  the 
epithet  conferred  on  him  by  Mr.  Dickens,  who  has  im- 
mortalized "  The  Good  Hippopotamus." 


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LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


some  fleshy  fibres  adhering  to  that  part  of  the  per- 
itoneum which  covers  the  liver,  remind  the  ob- 
server of  a  diaphragm.  This  organization,  com- 
bined with  their  trilocular  heart,  where  the  blood 
coming  from  the  lungs  is  not  mingled  with  the 
venous  portion  of  that  fluid,  which  comes  from 
the  body,  so  completely  as  it  is  in  other  reptiles, 
approximates,  though  in  no  great  degree,  the  croc- 
odilians  to  the  warm-blooded  quadrupeds.  As 
in  the  tortoises,  the  auditory  bone  and  the  ptery- 
goid  apophyses  are  fixed  to  the  skull. 

But  the  jaws,  which  in  the  chelonians  are 
edentulous,  are  furnished  with  numerous  large 
conical  teeth  of  unequal  length,  implanted  in  a 
single  row  in  the  thickness  of  the  upper  and  low- 
er maxillary  bones,  in  separate  cavities,  each  of 
which  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  true  alveolus  or 
socket.  This  formidable  array  is  constantly  kept 
up  in  good  order  and  condition  by  a  provision 
which  insures  a  constant  supply  of  serviceable 
teeth.  Each  tooth  is  hollowed  at  the  base,  so  as 
to  become  the  case  or  sheath  of  the  tooth  of 
greater  size  destined  to  replace  it ;  so  that,  in  the 
crocodiles,  the  operation  of  teething  is  always 
painlessly  going  on  :  nor  does  the  number  of  the 
teeth  vary  according  to  age.  The  pressure  of  the 
rising  tooth  causes  an  absorption  of  the  hollow  base 
of  the  old  one  ;  and  as  the  former  advances  the 
latter  dwindles,  till  it  drops  out  and  is  succeeded 
by  the  new  one.  It  need  hardly  be  observed 
that  great  solidity  and  strength  result  from  this 
double  gomphosis ;  while,  to  add  to  the  firmness 
of  the  terrible  apparatus,  the  sockets  are  directed 
obliquely  from  front  to  rear.  Each  tooth  is,  so 
to  speak,  insulated  ;  and  a  gum,  or  at  least  what 
does  duty  for  a  gum,  covers  the  bony  edges  of 
the  jaws  whence  they  spring.  • 

The  depressed  and  elongated  body  and  tail  are 
shielded  on  the  back  by  solid  carinated  scutch- 
eons. The  scales  of  the  belly  are  squared,  com- 
paratively delicate,  and  smooth.  The  tail  is  long- 
er than  the  body,  compressed  laterally,  and  its 
scales  are  elevated  into  a  central  ridge.  The 
fore-feet  are  furnished  with  five  toes,  the  hind-feet 
with  four.  All  the  toes  are  armed  with  claws, 
and  more  or  less  webbed.  The  nostrils  open  at 
the  end  of  the  muzzle,  and  are  raised  and  fur- 
nished with  crescent-shaped  slits.  This  elevation 
is  very  strongly  marked  in  the  Gavials  or  Gharri- 
als,  and  enables  the  animal  to  lie  floating  with  the 
nostrils  above  the  water  without  exposing  much 
of  the  head.  They  are  closed  by  valves  when 
the  creature  descends.  The  fleshy  flat  tongue  is 
attached  very  nearly  up  to  the  edges  ;  whence  the 
notion  of  the  ancients  that  the  crocodile  had  none. 
This  conformation  prevents,  in  a  great  measure, 
the  routing  out  of  leeches,  &c.,  by  muscular  ac- 
tion, and  accounts  for  the  necessity  of  external  aid 
in  freeing  the  mouth  from  annoying  parasites. 
The  lower  jaw  is  prolonged  backwards  beyond  the 
skull,  and  the  gape  is  proportionably  elongated. 
Hence,  when  the  animal  raises  its  head  and 
throws  it  a  little  backwards  on  opening  the  mouth 
by  the  depression  of  the  lower  jaw,  it  has  the  ap- 


pearance of  moving  its  upper  jaw,  whence  the 
error  of  the  ancients  in  that  respect. 

Cuvier  observes  that  the  crocodiles  cannot  swal- 
low when  in  the  water,  but  the  evidence  of  those 
who  have  seen  alligators  in  their  fishing  expedi- 
tions hardly  supports  this  assertion.  It  is  true 
that  such  witnesses  relate,  that,  after  having  seized 
the  fish  beneath  the  surface,  the  captor  rises  above 
it,  and  occasionally  tosses  the  prey  into  the  air. 
as  if  to  get  rid  of  the  water  taken  in  at  the 
time  of  the  seizure ;  but  there  can  be  no  question 
that,  on  such  occasions,  the  fish  is  swallowed  by 
the  alligator  without  leaving  the  water  ;  though 
the  latter  repairs  to  the  land  for  the  purpose  of 
deveuring  such  land  animals  as  it  may  have 
succeeded  in  surprising  and  drowning,  after  they 
have  undergone  such  a  degree  of  decomposition  as 
renders  their  fibre  tender  and  more  easily  divided 
by  crocodilian  teeth.  With  all  due  submission, 
then,  to  the  high  authority  of  the  great  French 
zoologist,  his  position  may  be  doubted  ;  and,  in- 
deed, the  careful  adaptation  of  a  part  of  its  organ- 
ization to  the  requirements  of  the  animal  goes  far  to 
contradict  it.  This  conformation  we  shall  endeav- 
or to  explain  with  as  little  technicality  as  possible. 
If  the  interior  of  the  mouth  of  a  crocodile  01 
alligator  be  examined,  the  roof  of  the  palate  will 
be  found  nearly  flat,  and  not  pierced  by  the 
extremities  of  the  nasal  fossa,  as  in  the  greater 
number  of  other  reptiles.  No  ;  the  posterior  na- 
sal apertures  open  in  the  pharynx  behind  the  pala- 
tine veil,  which  is  sufficiently  elongated  to  over- 
spread that  portion  of  the  roof  which  is  in  front 
of  the  glottis,  or  opening  of  the  windpipe.  Indeed, 
it  is  probable  that  the  crocodiles  are  the  only  rep- 
tiles that  have  a  true  pharynx,  in  other  words,  a 
vestibule  common  to  the  mouth,  the  posterior  nos- 
trils, the  larynx  or  windpipe,  and  the  oesophagus 
or  gullet.  This  arrangement  of  the  parts  in  com- 
bination with  the  muscular  structure  of  the  tongue, 
the  bone  of  which,  or  os  hyoides,  has  a  peculiar 
expansion,  produces  a  sort  of  disk  or  valve,  which 
can  be  lifted  and  applied  to  the  velum  palati  above, 
so  as  effectually  to  protect  the  glottis  and  perform 
the  office  of  the  epiglottis  in  mammiferous  animals, 
conferring  on  the  crocodile  a  peculiar  power  of 
deglutition  and  respiration  when  it  has  seized  its 
prey  below  the  surface  of  the  water,  or  has 
dragged  it  down  from  the  land.  The  same  admi- 
rable machinery  comes  also  into  play  in  carrying 
on  respiration,  when  the  animal  lies  with  its 
muzzle  alone  above  the  surface  of  the  water. 

The  eggs  of  the  crocodile  are  covered  v.ith  a 
hard  shell,  and  are  as  large  as  those  of  a  goose, 
but  not  so  oval.  The  female  is  said  to  guard  the 
nest  or  place  of  deposit,  and  to  bestow  maternal 
care  upon  the  young  during  some  months. 

The  form  is  widely  spread.  Asia,  Africa,  and 
America,  have  it.  There  is  no  authentic  record 
of  its  ever  having  inhabited  Europe,  in  the  present 
state  of  the  world  at  least ;  unless  we  are  to  give 
credit  to  the  assertion  of  Malte-Brun,  that  one 
was  taken  in  the  Rhone  some  two  centuries  ago. 
The  fifth  quarter  of  the  globe,  Australasia,  has  not 


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107 


as  yet  been  found  to  possess  it.  The  muzzle  of 
the  crocodiles  is  not  so  wide  as  that  of  the  alliga- 
tors or  caymans  ;  and  some  of  the  Asiatic  species, 
the  gavials*  for  example,  have  the  jaws  elongated 
into  a  narrow  snout,  with  a  rounded  termination, 
reminding  one  in  some  degree  of  the  beak  of  a 
gigantic  spoonbill  armed  with  teeth. 

The  alligators,  according  to  some,  derive  their 
name  from  the  Portuguese  word  lagarto,  signify- 
ing a  lizard  ;  some  make  it  a  modification  of  the 
Indian  word  legateer,  or  alkgater ;  and  others, 
again,  suppose  that  it  is  simply  a  corruption  of  the 
words  al  lagatore,}  the  inhabitants  of  the  lake  or 
lagoon — for  travellers  agree  generally  in  stating 
that  the  caymans  are  never  found  in  the  rapids,  or 
even  in  the  running  part  of  the  stream,  but  in 
creeks,  lagoons,  or  back  waters.  There  is  this 
difference,  also,  between  them  and  the  true  croco- 
diles, that  whereas  the  latter  frequently  descend 
beyond  the  brackish  water  of  great  rivers,  even 
into  the  sea — the  greater  species  that  inhabits  the 
Ganges  for  example — and  have  been  known  to 
swim  from  island  to  island  where  the  distance 
has  been  considerable,  no  such  migrations  have 
been  generally  recorded  on  the  pait  of  the  alli- 
gators, which,  it  has  been  said,  never  quit 
the  fresh  water. J  When,  after  the  intense  heats 
of  summer,  the  cold  season  approaches,  the  alliga- 
tors bury  themselves  in  the  mud  of  some  stagnant 
pool,  and  there  remain  concealed  and  comfortable, 
in  the  sort  of  death-in-life  state  of  hibernation,  till 
the  genial  breath  of  spring  calls  them  again  into 
active  life.  Then,  and  as  the  summer  advances, 
multitudes  may  be  seen  in  the  unfrequented  waters 
of  South  America,  their  huge  flat  heads  floating 
among  the  luxuriant  nymphaea — such  as  Queen 
Victoria's  own  water-lily,  and  other  aquatic 
plants,  with  which  the  surface  is,  as  it  were,  car- 
peted— or  basking  on  the  sunny  banks  in  a  dozing 
state,  when  the  day  is  at  the  hottest.  They 
probably  have  a  feathered  attendant,  as  the  true 
crocodiles  have,  for  a  bird  has  been  seen  quietly 
perched  on  an  alligator's  snout. 

Like  the  poacher,  their  principal  time  of  fishing 
is  in  the  night,  when  they  assemble  in  large  com- 
panies, drive  the  fish  before  them,  with  loud  bel- 
lowings  that  may  be  heard  a  mile  off,  into  some 
retired  creek,  and  take  up  a  position  at  the  mouth 
of  it.  Then  the  work  of  destruction  begins. 
Diving  under  the  crowded  shoal,  the  alligators 
seize  the  prey,  not  unfrequently  using  their  tails  to 

*  More  properly,  garrhials. 

t  Sloane,  who  writes  allagator,  allegator,  alagarta,  and 
alagartos,  derives  it  from  the  Spanish  alagarta,  a  lizard. 

t  But  note.  Sir  Hans  Sloane,  in  his  Jamaica,  speak- 
ing of  the  shoals  between  Port  Royal  and  Passage  Fort, 
and  of  the  corals,  starfishes,  and  echini,  which  there 
abound,  says  that  "  alienators  are  often  drawn  on  shoar 
in  the  senne-nels  by  the  fishermen,  whose  nets  are  gener- 
ally broken  by  them  ;"  and  he  speaks  of  one  which  was 
afterwards  taken,  as  stated  at  p.  34  of  this  book,  that 
used  to  do  abundance  of  mischief  to  the  people's  cattle 
"  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  bay,  having  his  regular 
courses  to  look  for  prey."  And  Sloane  further  remarks, 
that  "They  are  very  common  on  the  coasts  and  deep 
rivers  of  Jamaica."  Catesby,  too,  states,  that  they  fre- 
quent salt  rivers  near  the  sea,  as  well  as  streams  of  fresh 
water,  fresh  and  salt  lakes. 


sweep  the  terrified  fish  which  attempt  to  escape, 
towards  their  gaping  mouths,  while  the  shores  re- 
sound with  the  clanking  of  their  jaws.  Some 
have  supposed  that  the  musky  secretion  of  the 
glands  beneath  the  throat  has  attraction  for  the  fish, 
as  the  anglers  of  old  were  used  to  anoint  their  baits 
with  perfumed  unguents  to  draw  the  finny  race  to 
their  hooks.  But,  although  fish  form  the  principal 
food  of  the  alligators,  they  not  unfrequently  seize 
on  land  animals,  which,  if  too  large  to  be  swal- 
lowed whole,  they  sink  "beneath,  the  bank  till  it 
becomes  what  venison-eaters  term  rather  high, 
when  it  is  brought  out  and  devoured  at  leisure  on 
the  bank.  Some  of  them  have  been  known  to  at- 
tack men  while  bathing  or  swimming  across  rivers ; 
and  there  goes  a  saying,  that  they  prefer  the  flesh 
of  a  negro  to  any  other  delicacy.  Sonnini,  when 
he  notices  the  belief  above  referred  to,  that  the 
Christian  bears  a  charmed  life  against  the  croco- 
dile, while  the  Mussulman  is  devoured,  states  that 
he  has  read  somewhere  that  in  Western  Africa, 
the  reptile  not  only  prefers  the  negro,  but  never 
touches  the  white  Christian. 

Like  several  fishes,  gold  and  silver  fish  and  the 
carp  for  example,  the  alligators  live  at  their  ease 
in  waters  of  a  very  high  temperature.  Bartram 
found  great  numbers,  both  alligators  and  fish,  in  a 
spring  near  the  Mosquito  River  in  Florida,  strongly 
impregnated  with  vitriol,  and  nearly  at  boiling 
point  where  it  issued  from  the  earth. 

At  St.  Domingo,  M.  Ricord  had  opportunities 
of  witnessing  the  mode  in  which  reproduction  is 
carried  on  among  the  crocodilians  of  that  island. 
In  April  and  May,  he  tells  us,  the  female  deposits 
from  twenty  to  twenty-five  eggs,  more  or  less,  in 
the  sand  without  much  care,  and  indeed  hardly 
covering  them.  He  met  with  them  occasionally 
in  the  lime  which  the  masons  had  left  on  the  riv- 
er's bank.  According  to  his  reckoning,  and  if  the 
temperature  be  sufficiently  genial,  the  young  come 
forth  five  or  six  inches  in  length  on  the  fortieth 
day.  They  are  hatched  without  aid,  and  as  they 
are  able  to  exist  without  nourishment  while  extri- 
cating themselves  from  the  egg,  the  female  is  in 
no  haste  to  bring  it  to  them  ;  but  she  leads  them 
towards  the  water  and  into  the  mud,  where  she 
disgorges  half-digested  food  for  their  nourishment. 
The  male,  he  says,  takes  no  notice  of  them. 
They  retain  for  some  time  the  umbilical  cicatrice 
whereby  the  vitellus  was  absorbed  while  they 
were  in  the  egg.* 

Like  the  young  turtles,  many  of  them  are  de- 
stroyed by  their  numerous  enemies  in  their  way  to 
the  river,  and  before  they  get  into  deep  water. 

*  A  collector  who  had  taken  the  contents  of  one  of  these 
nests,  brought  the  eggs  to  the  house  where  he  was  living, 
and  put  them  into  his  room  on  the  first  floor.  One  day 
he  went  out,  leaving  the  door  of  his  room  open,  and  on 
his  return  beheld  a  swarm  of  young  alligators  coming 
down  stairs.  Another  procured  a  number  of  these  eggs 
just  before  he  sailed  for  England,  and  put  them  into  one 
of  his  chests.  Towards  the  end  of  the  voyage  he  had  oc- 
casion to  open  the  chest  where  he  had  stowed  away  the 
eggs,  and  found  a  legion  of  these  black  imps  among  his 
shirts  and  stockings.  Some  of  these  young  alligators 
arrived  alive  and  well  in  this  country. 


108 


LEAVES^FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


Vultures  devour  them  both  in  the  egg  and  on  their 
exclusion^;  and  ravenous  fishes  thin  their  ranks  as 
soon  as  they  reach  the  element  in  which  those  who 
survive  are  to  pass  so  much  of  their  existence. 

The  flesh  of  alligators  is  eaten  by  the  Indians, 
and  I  have  been  assured  by  those  who  have  par- 
taken of  it,  that  the  tail  of  a  young  alligator  sliced 
and  treated  like  veal  cutlets  bears  no  distant 
resemblance  to  that  dish. 

Of  their  ravenous  and  ferocious  disposition 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  and  stories  illustrative  of 
it  are  not  uncommon.  Bontius  relates,  that  a 
man  who  had  conducted  a  horse  to  drink  was  fierce- 
ly attacked  by  an  enormous  one,  and  if  the  latter 
had  not  suddenly  sprung  away,  both  man  and 
horse  would  have  been  in  danger  of  their  lives. 
Acosta  records  the  brasery  of  an  Indian  father, 
whose  little  son  had  been  seized  by  an  alligator 
that  plunged  with  his  pr»y  into  the  depths  of  the 
river.  The  father,  a  strong  and  skilful  swimmer, 
armed  with  a  short  sword,  leaped  in  after  the  rep- 
tile, dived  under  it,  and  by  a  succession  of  vigor- 
ous stabs  in  the  belly  compelled  the  monster  to 
make  for  the  bank,  where  it  deposited  the  child 
half-dead.  Mr.  Waterton  is  not  the  only  rider 
who  has  bestridden  one  of  these  river  Bucephali. 
He  mounted  an  alligator.  Adanson  witnessed  and 
shared  in  an  engagement  with  a  true  crocodile. 
The  negroes,  it  appears,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
river  Senegal,  boldly  attack  these  monsters  ;  and 
on  one  occasion  a  negro  discovered  a  crocodile, 
seven  feet  long,  asleep,  among  some  bushes  at  the 
foot  of  a  tree  near  the  banks  of  the  river.  The 
negro  stealthily  crept  up,  and  inflicted  a  deep 
wound  on  the  side  of  the  reptile's  neck.  The 
crocodile  with  one  sweep  of  his  tail  knocked  the 
negro  off  his  legs  ;  but  he  rose  instantly,  and 
slipped  a  rope  over  the  crocodile's  muzzle,  while 
one  of  his  companions  secured  the  formidable  tail. 
Then  Adanson  leaped  on  the  crocodile's  back,  and 
kept  it  down  while  the  negro  drew  out  the  knife 
which  he  had  left  sticking  in  the  wound,  and  cut 
off  his  antagonist's  head.  Another  author  men- 
tions one  of  the  garrison  of  Fort  St.  Louis  who 
used  frequently  to  amuse  himself  with  these  duels, 
and  always  with  success  ;  till  at  last  he  was  so 
terribly  wounded  in  one  of  those  combats,  that  he 
must  have  been  killed  outright  if  some  of  his 
comrades  had  not  come  to  the  rescue. 

Sir  Hans  Sloane  was  offered  the  stuffed  skin 
of  an  alligator  nineteen  feet  long  when  he  was  at 
Jamaica,  but  he  could  not  accept  of  it  on  account 
of  its  size,  "  wanting  room  to  stow  it."  The  story 
of  its  capture,  as  related  by  him,  is  curious. 
The  people  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  bay  be- 
tween Port  Royal  and  Passage  Fort  having  suffered 
great  loss  of  cattle  by  its  depredations,  a  dog  was 
used  as  a  bait,  with  a  piece  of  wood  tied  to  a  cord, 
the  further  end  of  which  was  made  fast  to  a  bed- 
post. The  reptile,  coming  round  as  usual  every 
night,  seized  the  dog,  was  taken  by  the  piece  of 
wood,  which  stuck  across  his  throat,  in  his  strug- 
gles drew  the  bed  to  the  window,  and  waked  the 
people,  "  who  killed  the  alligator  which  had  done 


them  much  mischief."  Sir  Hans  also  records  that 
there  was  "  a  pottle  of  stones"  in  the  belly  of  one 
nine  feet  long.  Ravenous  as  the  alligators  are, 
they  are,  like  serpents  and  tortoises,  capable  of 
enduring  a  very  long  fast.  Browne,  in  his  Natu- 
ral History  of  the  same  island  which  Sloane  so 
ably  illustrated,  remarks  that  they  are  observed  to 
live  for  many  months  without  any  visible  suste- 
nance ;  which  experiment,  he  says,  is  frequently 
tried  in  Jamaica  by  tying  their  jaws  with  wire,  and 
putting  them  thus  tied  up  into  a  pond,  well,  or 
water-tub,  where  they  often  lie  for  a  considerable 
time,  rising  to  the  surface  from  time  to  time  for 
breath.  He  also  asserts,  that  on  opening  the  an- 
imal the  stomach  is  generally  found  charged  with 
stones  of  a  pointed  oval,  but  flattened  shape,  to 
which  they  seem  to  have  been  worn  in  its  bowels. 

Doubtless  (adds  the  worthy  doctor)  it  swallows 
them,  not  only  for  nourishment,  which  is  evident 
from  the  attrition  and  solution  of  their  surfaces,  but 
also  to  help  its  digestion,  and  to  stir  up  the  oscilla- 
tions of  the  slothful  fibres  of  its  stomach,  as  many 
other  creatures  do.  Some  people  think  it  swal- 
lowed them  to  keep  them  easier  under  water  at 
times  ;  but  how  reasonable  soever  this  conjecture 
may  seem  to  some  people,  it  will  not  take  with  such 
as  are  better  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  aquatic 
animals. 

Catesby*  thus  draws  their  portraits  : — 

In  Jamaica,  and  many  parts  of  the  continent, 
they  are  found  above  twenty  feet  in  length  ;  they 
cannot  be  more  terrible  in  their  aspect  than  they  are 
formidable  and  mischievous  in  their  natures,  spar- 
ing neither  man  nor  beast  they  can  surprise,  pulling 
them  under  water,  that,  being  dead,  they  may  with 
greater  facility,  and  without  struggle  or  resistance, 
devour  them.  As  quadrupeds  do  not  so  often 
come  in  their  way,  they  mostly  subsist  on  fish  ;  but 
as  Providence,  for  the  preservation,  or  to  prevent 
the  extinction,  of  defenceless  creatures,  hath,  in 
many  instances,  restrained  the  devouring  appetites 
of  voracious  animals  by  some  impediment  or  other, 
so  this  destructive  monster,  by  the  close  connexion 
of  the  joints  of  his  vertebrae,  can  neither  swim 
nor  run  any  other  ways  than  straight  forward,  and 
is  consequently  disabled  from  turning  with  that 
agility  requisite  to  catch  his  prey  by  pursuit. 
Therefore  they  do  it  by  surprise,  in  the  water  as 
well  as  by  land  ;  for  effecting  of  which  Nature 
seems,  in  some  measure,  to  have  recompensed  their 
want  of  agility,  by  giving  them  a  power  of  deceiv- 
ing and  catching  their  prey,  by  a  sagacity  peculiar 
to  them,  as  well  as  by  the  outward  form  and  color 
of  their  body — which  on  land  resembles  an  old  dirty 
log  or  tree  ;  and,  in  the  water,  frequently  lies  float- 
ing on  the  surface,  and  there  has  the  like  appear- 
ance— by  which,  and  his  silent  artifice,  fish,  fowl, 
turtle,  and  all  other  animals,  are  deceived,  suddenly 
catched,  and  devoured. 

Catesby  also  mentions  their  habit  of  swallowing 
stones  and  other  hard  substances,  not,  as  he  thinks, 
to  help  digestion,  but  to  distend  and  prevent  the 
contraction  of  their  intestines  when  they  are  empty. 
In  the  greater  number  of  many  which  he  opened 
nothing  appeared  but  chumps  of  light  wood  and 
pieces  of  pine-tree  coal,  some  of  which  weighed 

*  Carolina. 


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109 


eight  pounds,  and  were  reduced  and  worn  so  smooth 
from  their  original  angular  roughness,  that  they 
seemed  to  have  remained  there  many  months. 

Dr.  Buckland,  in  his  Bridgewaler  Treatise,  well 
observes,  that  in  the  living  subgenera  of  the  croc- 
odilian family  we  see  the  elongated  and  slender 
beak  of  the  gavial  constructed  for  feeding  on  fishes  ; 
whilst  the  shorter  and  stronger  snout  of  the  broad- 
nosed  crocodiles  and  alligators  gives  them  the 
power  of  seizing  and  devouring  quadrupeds  that 
come  to  the  banks  of  rivers  in  hot  countries  to 
drink.  As  there  were  scarcely  any  mammalia 
during  the  secondary  periods,  while  the  waters 
were  abundant,  we  might,  a  priori,  expect,  he 
remarks,  that  if  any  crocodilian  forms  then  existed, 
they  would  most  nearly  resemble  the  modern  gavial. 
Accordingly,  those  genera  only  which  have  elon- 
gated beaks  have  been  found  in  formations  anterior 
to,  and  including  the  chalk  ;  whilst  the  true 
crocodiles,  with  a  short  and  broad  snout  like  the 
alligator,  appear  for  the  first  time  in  strata  of  the 
tertiary  periods  in  which  the  remains  of  mammalia 
abound. 

Though  neither  crocodile  nor  alligator  exists  in 
Europe,  nor  ever,  I  believe,  has  existed  there  since 
that  quarter  of  the  globe  was  peopled,  there  was  a 
time  when  this  now  temperate  island  must  have 
teemed  with  animals  only  able  to  exist  in  warm 
latitudes,  and  when  its  hotter  clime  presented  a 
congregation  of  all  the  crocodilian  forms  now  so 
widely  scattered  and  separated.  What  geograph- 
ical changes  has  the  world  undergone  since  that 
time !  How  different  was  the  face  of  this  fair 
island  before  the  eocene  deposits  were  formed  ! 

At  the  present  day  the  conditions  of  earth,  air, 
water,  and  warmth,  which  are  indispensable  to  the 
existence  and  propagation  of  these  most  gigantic  of 
living  saurians,  concur  only  in  the  tropical  or 
warmer  temperate  latitudes  of  the  globe.  Croco- 
diles, gavials,  and  alligators,  now  require,  in  order 
to  put  forth  in  full  vigor  the  powers  of  their  cold- 
blooded constitution,  the  stimulus  of  a  large  amount 
of  solar  heat,  with  ample  verge  of  watery  space  for 
the  evolutions  which  they  practise  in  the  capture 
and  disposal  of  their  prey.  Marshes  with  lakes — 
extensive  estuaries — large  rivers,  such  as  the  Gam- 
bia and  Niger,  that  traverse  the  pestilential  tracts 
of  Africa — or  those  that  inundate  the  country 
through  which  they  run,  either  periodically,  as 
the  Nile  for  example,  or  with  less  regularity,  like 
the  Ganges  ;  or  which  bear  a  broader  current  of 


tepid  water  along  boundless  forests  and  savannas, 
like  those  ploughed  in  ever-varying  channels  by  the 
force  of  the  mighty  Amazon  or  Oronooko — such 
form  the  theatres  of  the  destructive  existence  of  the 
carnivorous  and  predacious  crocodilian  reptiles.* 

Well  may  the  gifted  professor  ask,  What  must 
have  been  the  extent  and  configuration  of  the 
eocene  continent  which  was  drained  by  the  rivers 
that  deposited  the  masses  of  clay  and  sand,  accu- 
mulated in  some  parts  of  the  London  and  Hamp- 
shire basins  to  the  height  of  one  thousand  feet,  and 
forming  the  graveyard  of  countless  crocodiles  and 
gavials  1  whither  trended  that  great  stream,  once 
the  haunt  of  alligators,  .the  resort  of  tapir-like 
quadrupeds,  the  sandy  bed  of  which  is  now  exposed 
on  the  up-heaved  face  of  Hordwell  Cliff? 

No  one  is  better  qualified  to  give  an  answer  to 
such  questions  than  the  deep-thinking  and  eloquent 
querist.  Everything  must  fade  after  the  vivid 
picture  here  presented,  and  with  it  we  close  the 
scene  : — 

Had  any  of  the  human  kind  existed  and  traversed 
the  land  where  now  the  base  of  Britain  rises  from 
the  ocean,  he  might  have  witnessed  the  gavial 
cleaving  the  waters  of  its  native  river  with  the  ve- 
locity of  an  arrow,  and  ever  and  anon  rearing  its 
slender  snout  above  the  waves,  and  making  the  banks 
reecho  with  the  loud  and  sharp  snappings  of  its 
formidably-armed  jaws  ;  he  might  have  watched 
the  deadly  struggle  between  the  crocodile  and  pa- 
leeothere,  and  have  been  himself  warned  by  the 
hoarse  and  deep  bellowings  of  the  alligator  from 
the  dangerous  vicinity  of  its  retreat.  Our  fossil 
evidences  supply  us  with  ample  materials  for  this 
most  strange  picture  of  the  animal  life  of  ancient 
Britain,  and  what  adds  to  the  singularity  and  inter- 
est of  the  restored  tableau  vivant  is  the  fact,  that  it 
could  not  now  be  produced  in  any  part  of  the  world. 
The  same  forms  of  crocodilian  reptiles,  it  is  true, 
still  exist,  but  the  habitats  of  the  gavial  and  the 
alligator  are  wide  asunder,  thousands  of  miles  of 
land  and  ocean  intervening ;  one  is  peculiar  to  the 
tropical  rivers  of  continental  Asia,  the  other  is  re- 
stricted to  the  warmer  latitudes  of  North  and  South 
America  ;  both  forms  are  excluded  from  Africa,  in 
the  rivers  of  which  continent  true  crocodiles  alone 
are  found.  Not  one  representative  of  the  crocodil- 
ian order  naturally  exists  in  any  part  of  Europe  ; 
yet  every  form  of  the  order  once  flourished  in  close 
proximity  to  each  other  in  a  territory  which  now 
forms  part  of  England  .f 

*  Owen's  History  of  British  Fossil  Reptile*. 
t  Ibid. 


PART    XIII. 


Mettez  les  deux  chameleons  ensemble 
Celuy  d'Egypte,  et  celui  d'Arabie  ; 
On  trouvera  difference  en  leur  vie, 
Mesme  en  couleur  1'un  1'autre  ne  ressemble, 

Says  the  quatrain  with  which  the  portrait  of  the 
chameleon*  is  enriched  in  the  Portraits  d?  Oyseaux, 
Animaux,  Serpens,  Herbes,  Arbres,  Hommes  el 
Femmes,  observez  par  P.  Belon  du  Mans,  and  the 
record  is  true.  Of  this  curious  form  of  the  lacer- 

*  The  ancients  wrote  of  an  herb  of  the  same  name 
which  grew  among  the  rocks  on  the  sea-shore,  and 
changed  the  color  of  its  flowers  thrice  a  day. 

8 


tine  race  there  are  several  species,  and  every  year 
many  arrive  in  this  country  to  linger  out  an 
unnatural  existence  of  a  few  weeks. 

In  a  state  of  freedom,  and  in  its  natural  haunts, 
the  chameleon  would  seem  to  be  a  very  different 
being  from  the  torpid  invalid  seen  here  in  confine- 
ment. Hasselquist  speaks  almost  rapturously  of 
it,  calling  it  an  "  elegant  creature."  He  tells  us 
that  it  is  frequently  found  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Smyrna,  particularly  near  the  village  Sedizeud. 
There  he  describes  it  as  climbing  the  trees,  and 
running  among  the  stones.  The  people  of  the 


no 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


country  told  him  that  it  lived  in  hollow  trees. 
Hasselquist  was  not  an  eye-witness  of  this  habit ; 
but  often  saw  it  climb  on  the  branches  of  the  olive, 
plane,  and  other  trees.  He  had  seen  the  chame- 
leon of  Egypt ;  but  observes  that  it  is  less  than 
the  Asiatic,  and  is  not  often  met  with. 

When  Hasselquist  made  all  the  inquiry  he  could 
concerning  the  nature  of  the  animal,  in  a  place 
where  it  was  so  frequently  found,  the  inhabitants 
told  him  that  it  would  assume  the  color  of  a  piece 
of  cloth,  or  other  painted  or  colored  substance, 
which  might  be  put  before  it.  Some  assured  him 
that  it  lived  only  on  air,  but  others  told  him  that 
they  had  seen  it  catching  a  sort  of  very  small  flies. 

When  the  hypocritical  king  inquires,  "  How 
fares  our  cousin  Hamlet?"  the  Prince  of  Den- 
inark  replies,  "  Excellent,  i'  faith,  of  the  came- 
lion's  dish  ;  I  eate  the  ayre  promise-cramm'd,  you 
cannot  feed  capons  so." 

These  qualities,  of  changing  color  and  living  on 
air,  have  been  attributed  to  it  from  the  earliest 
times.  The  first  is  well-founded  ;  the  last  fabu- 
lous, but  the  fable  has  been  fortified  by  the  power 
possessed  by  the  reptile  of  living  in  apparently 
good  health  for  a  long  time — many  weeks — with- 
•out  visibly  taking  any  sustenance. 

In  the  stomach  of  one  dissected  by  Hasselquist, 
he  found  the  remains  of  various  insects,  tipulae, 
coccinellae,  and  butterflies ;  and  in  its  droppings, 
he  found  part  of  an  entire  ear  of  barley,  which  he 
characterizes  justly  as  very  singular.*  He  kept 
one  alive  for  a  considerable  time,  and  applied  him- 
self to  observations  on  its  habits. 

He  could  never  see  that  it  assumed  the  color  of 
any  painted  object  presented  to  its  view,  though 
he  made  many  experiments  with  all  kinds  of  colors, 
on  different  things — flowers,  cloth,  paintings,  &c. 
Its  natural  color  was  iron-gray,  or  black  mixed 
with  a  little  gray.  This  it  sometimes  changed, 
and  became  entirely  of  a  brimstone  yellow.  That 
was  the  color  which  he  saw  it  most  frequently 
assume,  with  the  exception  of  the  hue  first  men- 
tioned. He  had  seen  it  change  to  a  darker  yellow, 
approaching  somewhat  to  a  green,  sometimes  to  a 
lighter ;  at  which  time  it  was  more  inclined  to  a 
white  than  a  yellow.  He  did  not  observe,  that  it 
assumed  any  more  colors  ;  such  as  red,  blue,  pur- 
ple, &c.  ;  and,  for  that  reason,  was  inclined  to 
believe  that  all  which  has  been  said  concerning  the 
changing  and  shifting  of  colors  in  this  animal, 
consisted  only  in  this,  that  on  certain  occasions  it 
changes  the  dark  color,  which  seems  to  be  natural 
to  it,  into  yellow  of  various  shades.  He  observed 
that  his  reptile  more  particularly  did  it  on  two 
occasions  ;  one  was,  when  he  exposed  it  to  the 
hot  beams  of  the  sun  ;  and  the  other,  when  he 
made  it  angry  by  pointing  at  it  with  his  finger. 
When  it  was  changing  from  black  to  yellow,  the 
soles  of  its  feet,  its  head,  and  the  bag  under  its 
throat  began  first  to  alter — an  alteration  which 

*  The  presence  of  the  grain  may  be  accounted  for  by 
the  presence  of  an  insect  on  it,  when  the  chameleon, 
with  the  tip  of  its  adhesive  tongue,  may  have  brought 
away  the  grain,  with  its  natural  prey. 


was  afterwards  continued  over  the  whole  body. 
He  saw  it  several  times  speckled,  or  marked  with 
large  spots  of  both  colors  over  the  whole  body, 
which  gave  it  an  elegant  appearance.  When  it 
was  of  an  iron-gray  color,  it  extended  its  sides  or 
ribs  and  hypochondria,  which  made  the  skin  sit 
close  to  the  body,  and  it  appeared  plump  and 
handsome ;  but  as  soon  as  it  turned  yellow,  it 
contracted  those  parts,  appearing  thin,  empty,  lean, 
and  ugly  ;  and  the  nearer  it  approached  in  color 
to  white,  the  emptier  and  uglier  it  seemed  ;  but 
it  appeared  worse,  in  regard  to  shape,  when  it  was 
speckled. 

Hasselquist  kept  this  creature  alive  from  the 
8th  of  March  to  the  1st  of  April,  without  afford- 
ing it  an  opportunity  of  taking  any  food.  This  it 
much  to  be  regretted,  because,  in  its  native  climate, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that,  from  its  vivacity,  it 
would  have  fed  freely,  and  the  powers  of  absti- 
nence of  the  animal  had  been  tested  again  and 
again.  Notwithstanding  its  fast,  it  was  nimble 
and  lively  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time, 
climbing  up  and  down  in  its  cage,  fond  of  being 
near  the  light,  and  constantly  rolling  its  eyes.  At 
last  Hasselquist  could  plainly  perceive  that  the 
victim  waxed  lean  and  suffered  from  hunger  ;  but 
the  Swede  was  obdurate,  though  he  saw  that  it 
could  no  longer  hold  fast  by  the  bars  of  its  cage, 
from  which  it  fell  through  weakness,  when  a 
turtle,  a  thirse  probably,  which  was  kept  in  the 
same  room,  bit  it,  and  hastened  its  death. 

Before  I  came  to  the  resolution  induced  by  the 
death  of  poor  Binny,  my  tame  beaver,  a  friend 
gave  me  a  living  chameleon,  which  remained  with 
me  nearly  two  months.  It  was  winter,  and  every 
precaution  was  adopted  to  make  the  poor  reptile 
as  comfortable  as  possible.  It  lived  in  a  wicker 
cage,  to  the  bars  of  which  it  clung  with  feet  and 
tail ;  but,  after  it  had  been  with  me  a  few  days,  it 
would  leave  the  cage  and  establish  itself  on  the 
ornamental  work  of  the  iron  fender  before  the  fire. 
Soon  it  began  to  recognize  me,  surveying  me  with 
a  knowing  roll  of  its  singular  optics,  opened  in 
the  centre  of  the  shagreen-like  globes  of  the  eyes. 
It  then  would  leave  the  bars  of  the  cage  for  my 
hand,  the  warmth  of  which  seemed  to  comfort  it, 
and  would  remain  in  it  till  I  transferred  it  to  the 
warm  fender,  which  was  its  favorite  post.  Cling- 
ing with  its  feet  and  tail,  with  one  eye  directed 
backwards  towards  me,  and  with  the  other  for- 
wards, scanning  the  fire  as  if  it  were  looking  for  the 
faces  of  other  chameleons  in  it,  the  creature  would 
remain  motionless  for  hours  enjoying  the  genial  tem- 
perature. During  the  whole  time  it  was  with  me 
it  never  took  any  nourishment,  though  meal-worms 
and  other  insects  were  produced  for  it.  When 
they  were  presented  it  would  roll  its  eye  and  bring 
it  to  bear  upon  them;  but  neither  Mrs.  M.,  the 
good  old  housekeeper,  who  was  so  fond  of  Binny, 
nor  myself,  ever  saw  it  take  one,  nor  was  one 
ever  missed  from  among  those  presented  to  it. 
The  housekeeper  was  at  her  wits'  end  what  to  do 
for  it,  till  at  last  she  became  pacified,  fully  believ- 
ing that  it  fed  upon  air  ;  for,  notwithstanding  its 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A   NATURALIST. 


Ill 


abstinence,  it  did  not  apparently  fall  away.  But 
it  was  distressing  to  watch  its  strict  fast  day  after 
day,  and  yet  day  after  day  I  hoped  this  long  fast 
would  be  broken,  and  did  not  like  to  abandon  it. 
I  was  the  more  anxious  to  get  it  to  feed,  because 
it  was  full  of  eggs  in  the  progress  of  development, 
which  must  have  made  great  demands  on  its  con- 
stitution, and  I  had  frequently  seen  chameleons 
take  insects  freely  ;  of  which  more  anon.  One 
facetious  friend  would  never  call  it  anything  but 
Martha  Taylor,  in  memory,  I  suppose,  of  the  fast- 
ing woman  of  Derbyshire,  who,  in  consequence 
of  a  blow  on  the  back,  fell  into  such  a  prostration 
of  appetite,  that  she  took  hardly  any  sustenance  but 
some  drops  with  a  feather,  from  Christmas  1667, 
for  thirteen  months,  sleeping  but  little  all  the  time. 
After  laying  a  large  number  of  apparently  perfect 
eggs,  my  chameleon  died  ;  and  Mrs.  M.  announced 
the  event  to  me  as  "a  happy  release." 

Le  Bruyn,  in  his  Voyage  to  the  Levant,  declares 
that  the  chameleons  which  he  kept  in  his  apart- 
ment at  Smyrna  lived  on  air,  adding,  however, 
that  they  died  one  after  another  in  a  short  time. 
Sonnini,  who  saw  several  of  them  at  the  entrance 
of  the  catacombs  at  Alexandria,  wishing  to  satisfy 
himself  to  what  point  they  could  subsist  without 
food,  employed  every  precaution  to  prevent  their 
having  any,  leaving  them,  however,  exposed  to 
the  open  air.  They  Jived  under  these  conditions 
for  twenty  days,  but  soon  began  to  dwindle. 
When  they  were  first  caught  they  were  plump, 
but  they  soon  became  very  thin.  They  gradually 
lost  their  agility  and  their  colors  with  their  good 
condition  ;  their  skins  became  livid  and  wrinkled, 
and  adhered  close  to  the  bone ;  so  that,  to  use  his 
own  expression,  they  had  the  appearance  of  being 
dried  before  they  ceased  to  exist.  The  apparent 
good  condition  of  my  chameleon  may  have  been 
due  to  its  good  plight  when  I  received  it ;  most 
oviparous  animals  at  the  time  when  the  eggs  are 
in  the  early  process  of  formation,  being  weM  fed 
and  rilled,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  fish.  As  the 
eggs  are  developed  the  system  is  drained,  till,  at 
last,  when  they  are  fully  formed,  the  fish,  is  nearly 
worthless  as  food,  all  its  goodness  having  gone 
into  the  roe.  In  the  case  of  insects — the  silk 
moth,*  for  example — no  sustenance  is  taken  after 
the  worm  has  woven  the  shroud,  from  whose 
cerements  it  is  to  burst  forth  made  perfect.  The 
imago  has  every  sign  of  a  well-filled  system,  till, 
in  obedience  to  the  great  law  of  nature,  the  eggs 
are  laid,  and  the  parents,  having  finished  the  work 
which  they  were  appointed  to  perform,  die  with- 
out having  any  support  save  that  which  they  derive 
from  the  sun  and  air.  The  power  of  abstinence, 
even  in  those  warm-blooded  animals  whose  food  is 
not  always  ready  for  them,  the  carnivora,  for 
instance,  is  very  great ;  and  in  the  reptiles  gener- 
ally most  remarkable.  The  belief  that  the  chame- 
leon fed  on  air  only  was  general  amongst  the 
ancients.  The  mode  in  which  it  gulps  the  air 
for  respiration  favored  this  notion. 

*  Pkalcena  mori. 


Chameleon  hiat,  ut  tenui  depascitur  aura, 
Reciprocumque  soli  per  sata  carpit  iter. 

Indicat  ac  varies  semper  mutatque  colores, 
Mutat  hians  faciem,  mutat  hians  chlamydem. 

Candidaque  induitur  nunquam,  nee  rubra  supellex, 
Semper  hiat  zephyros,  semper  hiat  stimulos. 

And  long  before  these  lines  were  written  the 
amorous  Roman*  had  celebrated  the  aerial  diet 
and  mutability  of  the  creature. 

Id  quoque  quod  ventis  animal  nutritur  et  aura 
Protinus  assimilat  tetigit  quoscunque  colores. 

Red  and  white  were  supposed  to  be  the  colors 
which  it  could  never  assume,  as  indicated  in  the 
first  lines  above  printed.  The  former  color  no 
one  has  recorded  as  visible  upon  the  chameleon's 
skin  throughout ;  but  the  latter  has  been  mentioned 
both  in  prose  and  poetry.  A  vir  nobilissimus  fidt 
dignus  related  to  Aldrovand,  that  he  wrapped  up 
one  which  had  been  presented  to  him  in  a  whit* 
handkerchief,  and  when  he  arrived  at  home  pro- 
ceeded to  open  it,  in  order  to  examine  the  animal, 
but  could  see  nothing  but  the  handkerchief.  At 
last  he  detected  the  chameleon,  which  had  se 
completely  acquired  the  whiteness  of  the  wrapper 
as  to  be  invisible. 

The  gentlemen  who  nearly  lost  their  temper  im 
disputing  about  the  color  of  one  of  these  reptilee 
were  all  put  in  the  wrong  by  him  who 

Produc'd  the  beast,  and  lo!  'twas  white. 

My  experience  supports  the  conclusions  of 
Sonnini  and  Milne  Edwards  as  to  the  mutability 
of  color.  When  the  chameleon  kept  by  me  first 
came  into  my  possession,  and  was  comparatively 
vigorous,  substances  of  various  colors  were  placed 
near  it  without  its  ever  altering  its  hue  according- 
ly, as  far  as  I  could  perceive.  It  would  roll  its 
eye  and  bring  it  to  bear  on  the  object,  and  some- 
times the  tints  of  the  skin  would  vary,  but  not  iu 
unison  with  the  adjacent  color.  When  it  war 
clinging  to  the  dark  bronze-work  of  the  fender, 
enjoying  the  heat  of  the  fire,  I  sometimes  thought 
that  its  hue  became  more  sombre  ;  but  this  effect 
was  by  no  means  constant.  Gray,  Isabella  color, 
and  pale  yellow,  with  the  spots  or  granules  vary- 
ing into  green,  grayish  or  blackish,  were  the 
prevailing  changes  ;  but  I  never  saw  it  white.  I 
have  seen  it  of  a  whitey-brown  color ;  and  such 
was  its  prevailing  hue  in  its  latter  days,  and  at 
its  death. 

The  French  academicians  seem  to  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  sun  was  a  principal 
agent  in  such  changes.  They  describe  the  color 
of  the  eminences  of  their  chameleon,  when  it  was 
at  rest  in  the  shade  and  had  remained  a  long  time 
undisturbed,  as  of  a  bluish  gray,  except  under  the 
feet,  where  it  was  white  inclining  to  yellow,  and 
the  intervals  of  the  granules  of  the  skin  were  of  a 
pale  and  yellowish  red.  This  changed  when  the 
animal  was  in  the  sun ;  and  all  the  parts  of  its 
body  which  were  illuminated  altered  from  their 
bluish  color  to  a  brownish  gray  inclining  to 
tawny.  The  rest  of  the  skin,  which  was  not 
illuminated  by  the  sun,  changed  from  gray  into 
several  lively  shining  colors,  forming  spots  about 

*  Mctam.  lib.  xv. 


112 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


half  a  finger's  breadth,  reaching  from  the  crest  of  ]  passions  of  the  creature.     He  holds  that,  when  a 


the  spine  to  the  middle  of  the  back ;  and  others 
appeared  on  the  ribs,  forelegs,  and  tail.  All  the 
spots  were  of  an  Isabella  color,  through  the  mix- 
ture of  a  pale  yellow,  with  which  the  granules 
were  tinged,  and  of  a  bright  red,  which  was  the 
color  of  the  skin  that  was  visible  between  the 
granules ;  the  rest  of  the  skin  not  in  the  sun's 
light,  and  which  was  of  a  paler  gray  than  ordina- 
ry, resembled  a  cloth  made  of  mixed  wool,  some  of 
the  granules  being  greenish,  others  of  a  tawny 
gray,  and  others  of  the  usual  bluish  gray,  the 
ground  remaining  as  before.  When  the  sun 
ceased  to  shine,  the  original  gray  appeared  again 
by  degrees,  and  spread  itself  all  over  the  body, 
except  under  the  feet,  which  continued  nearly  of 
the  same  color,  but  rather  browner.  When,  in 
this  state  of  color,  it  was  handled  by  strangers, 
several  blackish  spots  about  the  size  of  a  finger- 
nail appeared — a  change  which  did  not  take  place 
when  it  was  handled  by  those  who  usually  took 
care  of  it.  Sometimes  it  was  marked  with  brown 
spots  which  inclined  towards  green.  It  was 
wrapped  in  a  linen  cloth,  and,  after  two  or  three 
minutes,  was  taken  out  whitish,  but  not  so  white 
as  that  which  the  vir  nobilifsimus  above  alluded  to 
subjected  to  a  similar  experiment.  Theirs,  which 
had  only  changed  its  ordinary  gray  into  a  paler 
gray,  after  having  retained  that  color  some  time, 
lost  it  gradually.  This  experiment  made  them 
question  the  truth  of  the  allegation  that  the  cha- 
meleon takes  all  colors  but  white,  as  Theophras- 
tus  and  Plutarch  report ;  for  theirs  seemed  to 
have  such  a  disposition  to  retain  this  color  that  it 
grew  pale  every  night,  and  when  dead  it  showed 
more  white  than  any  other  color.  Nor  did  they 
find  that  it  changed  color  all  over  the  body,  as 
Aristotle  reports  ;  for,  according  to  their  experi- 
ence, when  the  animal  takes  other  colors  than 
gray,  and  disguises  itself  to  appear  in  masquerade, 
as  ^Elian  pleasantly  observes,  it  covers  only  cer- 
tain parts  of  the  body  with  them.  They,  finally, 
laid  their  chameleon  on  substances  of  various 
colors,  and  wrapped  it  up  in  them  ;  but  it  did  not 
take  those  colors  as  it  had  taken  the  white,  and, 
indeed,  they  allow  that  it  only  took  the  white  the 
first  time  the  experiment  was  made,  though  it  was 
repeated  several  times  and  on  different  days. 

Hasselquist's  experiments  with  regard  to  the 
mutability  of  color  were  followed  by  nearly  the 
same  consequences  as  mine  ;  but  he  thought  that 
the  changes  depended  on  a  sort  of  disease,  a  kind 
of  jaundice,  to  which  the  animal  was  subject, 
particularly  when  it  was  irritated. 

The  blood,  in  the  opinion  of  M.  d'Obsonville, 
was  the  cause  of  the  change.  That  fluid,  accord- 
ing to  him,  is,  in  the  chameleon,  of  a  violet  blue, 
which  color,  he  says,  it  will  retain  on  linen  or 
paper  for  some  minutes,  if  it  be  previously  steeped 
in  a  solution  of  a^m.  The  coats  of  the  blood- 
vessels he  found  to  be  yellow,  both  in  their  main 
trunks  and  ramifications,  and  he  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  green  will  be  the  product.  Like 
Hasselquist,  he  attributes  the  change  of  color  to  the 


lealthy  chameleon  is  provoked,  the  circulation  is 

accelerated,  the  vessels  spread  over  the  skin  dis- 

ended,  and  so  a   superficial  blue-green  color  is 

>roduced  ;  but  when  the  animal  is  shut  up,  deprived 

if  free  air  and  impoverished,  the  circulation  be- 

omes  sluggish,  the  vessels  are  not  well  filled,  and 

he  languid  chameleon  changes  to  a  yellow-green, 

which  continues  during  its  imprisonment. 

Others,  the  late  Sir  John  Barrow  for  instance, 
have  observed  that,  previous  to  a  change,  the 
chameleon  makes  a  long  inspiration,  when  the 
>ody  is  inflated  so  as  to  appear  twice  its  usual 
size,  and,  as  the  inflation  subsides,  the  change  of 
color  is  gradually  manifested,  the  only  permanent 
marks  being  two  small  dark  lines  along  the  sides  ; 
and  it  has  been  argued,  from  this  description,  that 
he  reptile  owes  its  varied  tints  to  the  influence  of 
oxygen.  Mr.  Houston  is  also  of  opinion  that  the 
ihange  depends  on  the  state  of  turgescency  of  the 
skin  ;  and  Mr.  Spittal  regards  it  as  connected  with 
respiration  and  the  state  of  the  lungs.  Theories 
upon  theories,  as  varied  as  the  tints  which  they 
profess  to  explain,  have  been  broached  to  account 
"or  these  changes  ;  but,  without  dwelling  longer 
upon  them,  let  us  turn  to  the  solution  of  M.  Milne 
Edwards,  who,  in  an  elaborate  paper  published  in 
the  Annales  des  Sciences  Naturelles  for  January, 
1834,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  color  of 
chameleons  does  not  depend  essentially  on  the 
greater  or  less  inflation  or  expansion  of  their 
jodies,  or  the  changes  which  might  thence  take 
>lace  in  the  circulation  or  condition  of  the  blood  ; 
nor  on  the  distance  between  the  several  tubercles 
or  granules  of  the  skin  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  he 
does  not  deny  that  those  circumstances  may  prob- 
ably exercise  some  influence.  He  shows  that 
there  exist  in  the  skin  of  these  reptiles  two  layers 
of  membranous  pigment,  one  above  the  other,  but 
so  disposed  as  to  appear  simultaneously  under  the 
cutici<;,  and  sometimes  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
one  may  be  hidden  by  the  other ;  and  he  insists 
that  everything  remarkable  in  the  changes  of  the 
chameleon's  color  may  be  explained  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  pigment  of  the  lower  layer  to  an 
extent  more  or  less  considerable  in  the  midst  of 
the  pigment  of  the  upper  layer,  or  by  its  disap- 
pearance beneath  that  layer.  That  these  displace- 
ments of  the  lower  pigment  do  actually  occur  he 
proves,  and  he  derives  from  those  facts  the  proba- 
ble consequence  that  the  chameleon's  color  changes, 
not  only  during  life,  but  that  it  may  vary  after 
death.  He  also  observes,  that  there  is  a  close 
analogy  between  the  mechanism  which  causes  the 
changes  of  color  in  these  lacertians  and  that  which 
governs  the  appearance  and  disappearance  of  col- 
ored spots  in  the  mantles  of  several  of  the  cephal- 
opods  or  cuttles. 

So  long  ago  as  July,  1819,  Signer  Giosu£ 
Sangiovanni  read  to  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences at  Naples  his  able  and  interesting  paper, 
intituled  Descrizione  di  un  particolare  Sistema  di 
Organi,  e  de*  Fenomeni  cA'  esso  produce ;  scoverto 
ne1  Molluschi  Cefalopodi,  in  which  he  described  the 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


113 


structure  and  properties  of  the  colorific  stratum 
of  the  skin  of  the  cephalopoda,  upon  which  the 
observations  of  M.  Milne  Edwards  are  in  a  great 
measure  based.  Professor  Owen  quotes  it  in  his 
admirable  article  "  Cephalopoda,"  in  the  Cyclo- 
peedia  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology ;  and,  as  this 
part  of  the  organization  of  those  mollusks  is  the 
key  to  the  changes  of  color  in  the  chameleon, 
those  who  are  interested  in  the  subject  may  like 
to  see  a  brief  account  of  the  mechanism  by  which 
the  changes  are  effected  in  the  marine  animals. 

The  epidermis  of  the  cephalopods  generally 
forms  a  thick,  white,  semi-transparent,  elastic, 
external  layer,  which  is  easily  detached  by  macer- 
ation. Professor  Owen  remarks,  that  the  color- 
ific stratum  of  the  integument  forms,  both  in  its 
structure  and  vital  phenomena,  one  of  the  most 
curious  and  interesting  parts  of  the  organization 
of  this  singular  class  of  animals,  and  that  the 
nature  of  this  layer,  when  thoroughly  understood, 
may  be  expected  to  elucidate  the  mysterious  opera- 
tions of  light  in  producing  and  affecting  the  colors 
of  animals.  This  stratum,  which  is  analogous  to 
the  rete  mucosum  which  gives  color,  or  "  com- 
plexion," as  it  is  termed,  to  man,  consists,  he 
observes,  of  a  very  lax  and  fine  vascular  and 
nervous  cellular  tissue,  containing  an  immense 
number  of  small  closed  vesicles,  which  vary  in 
relative  sizes  in  different  species.  These  vesicles 
are  of  a  flattened  oval  or  circular  form,  and  con- 
tain a  fluid  in  which  a  denser  coloring  matter  is 
suspended.  The  color  is  not  always  identical  in 
all  the  vesicles,  but,  in  general,  corresponds  more 
or  less  closely  with  the  tint  of  the  secretion  of  the 
ink-bag  with  which  this  race  is  furnished  as  a 
protection ;  for,  as  is  known  to  all  who  have 
observed  their  habits,  their  first  act  when  surprised 
is  to  eject  this  inky  fluid,  succus  nigrce.  loliginis, 
that  they  may  escape  under  cloud  of  the  discolored 
water.  In  the  common  cuttle,  Sepia,  besides  the 
vesicles  which  correspond  to  the  ink  in  the  color 
of  their  contents,  there  is  another  series  of  an 
ochre  color.  In  the  common  pen-and-ink  fish, 
Loligo  vulgaris,  there  are  three  sorts  of  colored 
vesicles,  yellow,  rose-red,  and  brown.  In  Loligo 
sagitlata  there  are  four  kinds — saffron,  red,  black- 
ish, and  bluish.  The  paper  Nautilus,  Argonauta 
Argo,  possesses  vesicles  of  all  colors,  which  have 
been  observed  in  other  cephalopods,  and  hence  the 
variety  and  change  of  color  which  its  skin  presents 
when  exposed  to  the  light.  The  rest  of  this  in- 
teresting organization  will  be  best  conveyed  in  the 
professor's  own  words  : — 

These  vesicles  have  no  visible  communication 
either  with  the  vascular  or  the  nervous  systems,  or 
with  each  other  ;  yet  they  exhibit  during  the  life- 
time of  the  animal,  and  long  after  death,  rapid 
alternating  contractions  and  expansions.  If,  when 
the  animal  is  in  a  state  of  repose,  and  the  vesicles 
are  contracted  and  invisible,  the  skin  be  slightly 
touched,  the  colored  vesicles  show  themselves,  and 
in  an  instant,  or  sometimes  with  a  more  gradual 
motion,  the  color  will  be  accumulated  like  a  cloud 
or  a  blush  upon  the  irritated  surface.  If  a  portion 
of  the  skin  be  removed  from  the  body  and  immersed 


in  sea-water,  the  lively  contractions  of  the  vesicles 
continue ;  when  viewed  in  this  state  under  the 
microscope  by  means  of  transmitted  light,  the  edges 
of  the  vesicles  are  seen  well  defined,  and  to  pass  in 
their  dilatations  and  contractions  over  or  under 
one  another.  If  the  separated  portion  of  integu- 
ment be  placed  in  the  dark,  and  examined  after  a 
lapse  of  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  all  motion  has 
ceased ;  but  the  vesicles,  when  reexposed  to  a 
moderately  strong  light,  soon,  in  obedience  to  that 
stimulus,  recommence  their  motions.  As  the  vibra- 
tile  microscopic  cilia  have  been  recently  traced 
through  the  higher  classes  of  the  animal  kingdom, 
it  is  not  an  unreasonable  conjecture  that  equally 
inexplicable  motions  of  the  coloring  parts  of  the 
integument  may  also  be  detected  in  other  classes 
than  that  in  which  we  have  just  described  them, 
and  thus  a  clue  may  be  obtained  towards  the  expla- 
nation of  the  influence  of  geographical  position  OB 
the  prevailing  colors  of  the  animal  kingdom. 

This  is  a  most  seducing  and  interesting  subject, 
well  worthy  of  consideration  and  further  experi- 
ment ;  but  at  present  we  must  return  to  our 
chameleons.  Just  see  how  admirably  the  adapta- 
tion is  carried  on  throughout.  The  free  foot, 
formed  in  some  of  the  other  lacertians  for  running 
nimbly  over  the  sand  or  through  the  herbage,  with 
the  aid  of  the  disposition  of  the  other  limb  bones, 
is  here  changed  into  an  organ  essentially  prehensile. 
The  two  wrist-bones,  which  are  next  to  those  of  the 
forearm,  are  articulated  upon  one  central  piece, 
which  receives  the  five  bones  that  correspond  to  th« 
metacarpal.  Three  of  these  are  for  the  anterior  toes, 
and  two  for  the  posterior  ;  and  the  whole  five  finger 
bones  are  bundled  up  in  the  integuments  to  the  claws, 
three  in  the  fore  bundle  and  two  in  the  hind  bundle, 
forming  a  most  efficient  clinging  instrument  when 
applied  to  the  branch  of  a  tree.  The  toes  of  the 
hinder  extremities  are  disposed  in  the  same  oppos- 
able  manner.  The  creature  in  its  natural  state, 
planted  firmly  among  the  foliage,  and  holding 
tenaciously  on  by  its  feet  and  tail,  varying  its 
color  at  pleasure  in  the  chequered  light  and  shade, 
looks  more  like  an  excrescence  of  the  tree  than  an 
animated  being  ;*  and  woe  to  the  luckless  insect 
that,  deceived  by  appearances,  ventures  within 
reach  of  its  unerring  tongue !  For,  though  the 
shortness  of  its  neck  and  its  enormous  occiput  for- 
bid it  to  turn  its  head,  which  it  can  no  more  do 
than  a  carp  or  a  codfish,  the  sweep  of  its  vision  is 
very  great.  Take  up  a  chameleon's  skull,  and 
observe  how  large  a  space  is  occupied  by  the 
orbits.  In  these  capacious  receptacles  ample  room 
is  afforded  for  the  large  globe  and  the  muscles 
which  are  to  direct  it.  The  pupil  looks  like  an  ani- 
mated gem  set  in  shagreen,  and  this  versatile  globe 
is  capable  of  the  most  varied  and  extensive  direo- 
tion.  This,  as  worthy  Dr.  Goddard  says,  "  she 
turneth  backward  or  any  way,  without  moving  her 

*  The  Tarandus  of  Pliny  will  occur  to  those  of  our 
readers  who  are  conversant  with  his  wonderful  maga- 
zine, where  the  beast  is  described  as  being  as  big  as 
an  ox,  and  when  he  pleaseth,  assuming  the  color  of  an 
ass.  But  this  is  a  small  sample  of  his  versatility,  for 
"he  reflects  the  colors  of  all  shrubs,  trees,  flowers, 
and  of  the  place  where  he  lies,  and  hiding  himself 
from  fear,  he  is  on  that  account  very  rarely  taken." — 
Nat.  Hist.  viii.  34. 


114 


LEAVES    FROM   THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A   NATURALIST. 


head ;  and  ordinarily  the  one  a  contrary  or  quite 
different  way  from  the  other." 

But  (as  another  old  writer  observes)  what  is 
most  extraordinary  in  this  motion  is  to  see  one  of 
the  eyes  move  whilst  the  other  remains  immovable  ; 
and  the  one  to  turn  forward,  at  the  same  time  that 
the  other  looketh  behind  ;  the  one  to  look  up  to  the 
sky,  when  the  other  is  fixed  on  the  ground.  And 
these  motions  to  be  so  extreme,  that  they  do  carry 
the  pupilla  under  the  crest  which  makes  the  eye- 
brow, and  so  far  into  the  canthi,  or  corners  of  the 
•yes,  that  the  sight  can  discern  whatever  is  done 
just  behind  it,  and  directly  before,  without  turning 
the  head,  which  is  fastened  to  the  shoulders. 

The  vermiform  tongue  of  the  woodpecker  is 
known  to  most  who  have  shot  one,  and  the  same 
organ  is  the  principal  agent  by  which  the  chame- 
leon takes  its  prey.  Like  that  of  the  woodpecker, 
the  tongue  of  the  chameleon  can  be  protruded  to  a 
considerable  length.  In  the  reptile,  this  organ  is 
projected  in  a  cylindrical  and  apparently  erectile 
state  from  the  sheath  at  the  lower  part  of  the 
mouth,  where  it  remains  when  at  rest,  to  the 
length  of  half-a-foot,  and  returns  with  a  fly  or 
other  insect  adhering  to  its  glutinous  tip,  when 
the  prey  is  secured  within  the  teeth,  which  have 
no  true  roots,  their  trilobated  crowns  appearing 
to  be  soldered  upon  the  edge  of  the  upper  part  of 
a  groove  hollowed  in  the  maxillary  bone,  and 
looking  like  an  enamelled  and  denticulated  finish 
to  that  edge. 

I  have  frequently  seen  chameleons  take  their 
food,  although  I  never  could  succeed  in  inducing 
my  own  to  break  its  fast.  When  one  of  them  is 
about  to  feed,  it  rolls  its  shagreen  eyeball  till  the 
pupil  is  brought  to  bear  upon  the  intended  victim. 
Motionless  and  patient,  the  reptile  waits  till  the 
insect  arrives  within  distance.  Then  the  exten- 
sile tongue  is  protruded  with  unfailing  aim  pre- 
cisely to  the  extent  required,  and  is  retracted  with 
the  prey.  I  have  seen  them  take  mealworms 
frequently.  When  two  mealworms  were  placed 
before  a  chameleon,  one  on  one  side  and  one  on 
the  other,  at  different  distances,  the  eye  of  each 
side  was  levelled  at  the  adjacent  insect;  and 
though  the  eyes  were  necessarily  looking  in  dif- 
ferent directions,  the  tongue  did  its  duty  upon  both 
one  after  the  other,  when  they  came  within  reach 
The  motion  of  extension  and  retraction  was  no 
very  rapid,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  those 
seen  by  me  were  in  confinement  in  this  country. 

So  extraordinary  a  shape  was  not  likely  to  be 
passed  over  by  the  ancients  without  attributes  as 
odd  as  the  animal  itself ;  and  Democritus  seems  to 
have  revelled  in  the  marvellous  qualities  possessec 
by  its  several  parts.  Thus,  we  are  told  that  thii 
remarkable  tongue, ';  pulled  out  of  the  head  whiles 
the  chamaeleon  is  quicke,  promiseth  good  successe 
in  judicial!  trials" — in  compliment,  doubtless,  tc 
the  lawyers,  who 

Can  with  ease 
Change  words  and  meanings  as  they  please, 

but  are  as  unerring  as  the  chameleon's  organ  ir 
securing  the  substantial  part  of  the  litigation. 


There  is  not  a  creature  in  the  world  thought 
more  fearefull  than  it ;  which  is  the  reason  of  that 
mutability  whereby  it  turneth  into  such  varietie  of 
olors  ;  howbeit  of  exceeding  great  power  against 
ill  the  sortes  of  hawkes  or  birds  of  prey  ;  for,  by 
eport,  let  them  fly  and  soar  never  so  high  over  the 
hamaeleon,  there  is  an  attractive  vertue  that  will 
etch  them  downe,  so  as  they  shall  fall  upon  the 
hamaeleon,  and  yeeld  themselves  willingly  as  a 
srey  to  be  torne,  mangled,  and  devoured  by  other 
beasts. 

Pliny,  who  quotes  the  Greek,  goes  on  to  in- 
brm  us  that  the  same  Democritus 

Telleth  us  a  tale,  that  if  one  burne  the  head  and 
hroat  of  the  chamaeleon  in  a  fire  made  of  oken 
wood,  there  will  immediately  arise  tempests  of 
rainy  stormes  and  thunder  together  ;  and  the  liver 
will  do  as  much  (saith  he)  if  it  burne  upon  the  tiles 
of  an  house.  As  for  all  the  other  vertues  which 
he  said  author  ascribe th  to  the  chamaeleon,  be- 
:ause  they  smell  of  witchcraft,  and  I  hold  them 
meere  lies,  I  will  overpasse  them  all,  unlesse  they 
>e  some  few  for  which  he  deserveth  well  to  be 
aughed  at,  and  would  indeed  be  reproved  by  no 
other  means  better. 

And  yet  the  critic,  in  his  eighth  book,  gravely 
nforms  us,  that  "  the  raven,  when  he  hath  killed 
the  chamseleon,  and  yet  perceiving  that  he  is  hurt 
and  poisoned  by  him,  flieth  for  remedy  to  the 
iaurell,  and  with  it  represseth  and  extinguishetn 
the  venom  that  he  is  infected  withal  1."  Others 
relate  that  if  a  crow  tasted  the  flesh  of  the  reptile 
tie  was  a  gone  crow. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  recorded  that  the  inhabitants 
of  Cochin  China  find  them  good  meat — by  a  pro- 
cess of  cookery,  however,  somewhat  similar  to 
that  directed  by  Mizald,  when  he  instructs  his 
scholars  "  how  to  roast  and  eat  a  goose  alive," 
and,  after  dwelling  upon  every  particular  of  the 
diabolical  process,  winds  up  by  declaring  that  "  it 
is  mighty  pleasant  to  behold!"  The  hapless 
chameleons  were  brought,  we  are  told,  to  the 
Cochin  Chinese  market  tied  together  in  a  string. 
The  purchasers  took  them  home,  made  a  fine  clear 
fire,  unbound  their  chameleons,  and  then  put  them 
into  the  burning  fiery  furnace,  where  they  at  first 
endeavored  to  walk  on  the  glowing  coals,  but 
overcome  with  agony  fell  down,  were  well  broiled, 
taken  out,  their  skins  pulled  off,  and  their  caro 
candidissima  minced  fine,  stewed  in  butter,  and 
served  up  ;  idque  epularum  genus  apud  ipsos  in 
lautissimis  amis  commendatur.  Ude  was  but  a 
plagiarist  in  the  matter  of  eels,  after  all. 

It  may  be  worth  knowing  in  these  days  of 
semi-Thuggism,  which  throw  those  of  the  Mo- 
hocks into  the  shade,  that  "  the  right  forefoot  of 
a  chamaeleon  hanged  fast  to  the  left  arm  within  the 
skin  of  a  hyaena,  is  singular  against  the  perils 
and  dangers  by  thieves  and  robbers  ;  as  also  to 
skar  away  hobgoblins  and  night  spirits.  In  like 
manner,  whosoever  carry  about  them  the  right  pap 
of  this  beast,  may  bee  assured  against  al  fright  and 
feare."  Talk  of  fernseed  for  invisibility— Democ- 
ritus will  tell  you  that  "  the  left  foote  they  use  to 
torrifie  in  an  oven  with  the  herb  called  also  cha- 


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115 


maeleon,  and  with  some  convenient  ointment  or 
liquor  to  make  in  certain  trosches,  whereof  if  a 
man  do  carry  any  in  a  box  of  wood  about  him  he 
shall  go  invisible." 

In  case  of  invasion,  it  is  satisfactory  to  know 
that "  whosoever  hath  about  him  the  right  shoulder 
of  the  chamaeleon,  shall  bee  able  to  overthrow  his 
adversarie  at  the  barre,  and  to  vanquish  his  enemie 
in  the  field  ;"  and  we  recommend  this  hint  to  Sir 
Francis  Head  for  his  second  edition ;  but  remem- 
ber that,  first,  "  hee  must  be  sure  to  cast  away 
and  make  riddance  of  the  strings  and  sinews  be- 
longing thereto,  and  to  tread  them  under  foot." 

In  the  ancient  pharmacopeia,  the  chameleon 
was  a  perfect  repertory  of  remedies.  "  Take  the 
ashes,"  quoth  Democritus,  "  of  the  left  thigh  or 
foot,  chuse  you  whether,  incorporate  the  same 
with  the  milke  of  a  sow,  and  therewith  annoint 
the  feet,  it  wil  be  an  occasion  speedily  to  bring 
the  gout  upon  them."  Doctors  differed  then,  as 
they  do  now,  for  the  learned  Trallianus  prepared 
from  it  a  most  certain  medicine  for  driving  the 
gout  away.  But  however  this  may  be,  "  of  the 
chamaeleon's  gall,  for  the  most  part,  folk  are  in 
manner  verily  persuaded,  that  it  will  rid  the  pin  and 
web,  the  cataract  also  of  the  eies,  with  three  daies 
anointing ;  chase  away  serpents  if  it  be  dropped 
into  the  fire  ;  gather  all  wezils  in  a  country  to- 
gether, only  by  throwing  it  into  the  water ;  and 
fetch  offhaire  if  the  body  be  anointed  therewith." 
The  catalogue  might  be  extended  voluminously  ; 
but  these  few  prescriptions  will  suffice  for  those 
who  are  not  anxious  to  penetrate  into  the  depths  of 
the  sanitary  and  other  mysteries  of  Democritus  and 
Co. 

That  zoologists  should  have  considered  this  form 
as  isolated,  aberrant  as  it  appears  to  be  from  the 
general  lacertian  structure,  cannot  be  matter  of 
surprise.  It  seems  to  stand  alone ;  but  if  we 
closely  examine  its  organization,  we  shall  find 
that  the  apparent  isolation  is  merely  a  modification 
of  different  parts  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  ani- 
mal, and  that  the  sessile  chamaeleon  is  as  much  a 
lizard  as  the  nimble  Lacerta  agilis  that  vanishes 
from  the  sunbeam  wherein  it  is  basking  before  the 
dazzled  eye  of  the  intruder  has  well  made  out  its 
colors.  The  form  of  the  extremities  throughout 
the  tribe  is  exactly  fitted  to  the  condition  to  which 
it  has  pleased  the  Great  Disposer  to  call  them,  and 
these  conditions  we  find  gradually  altered,  now 
dwindling,*  now  the  front  pair  vanishing,!  then 
the  posterior  pair  obliterated  with  the  front  pair 
tolerably  developed,^  till,  at  last,  the  whole  of  the 
extremities  disappear ;  and,  in  the  innocent  but 
much-persecuted  blind-worm,^  we  have  a  lizard  in 
an  entirely  serpentine  form. 

*  Chamaesaura.  t  Bipes.  t  Chirotes. 

§  Anguis  fragilis.  I  have  frequently  seen  this  in- 
nocuous animal  put  to  death  as  the  most  poisonous  of 
serpents.  The  answer  to  my  remonstrances  has  been 
that  I  "knew  nothing  about  it;  an  adder  was  bad 
enough,  but  this  was  an  asker,  with  more  poison  in 
him  than  all  the  rest  put  together.  No  one  that  he 
bites  ever  recovers."  This  last  assertion  was  not  far 
from  the  truth  ;  for  the  harmless  creature  never  bites 
except  what  it  eats — insects  and  worms. 


Nature  is  inexhaustible.  The  wizard  conquered 
the  indefatigable  demon  who  "split  Eildon  Hills 
in  three"  in  one  night,  by  tasking  him  to  make 
ropes  of  sea-sand.  According  to  the  usual 
natural  instruments  of  progression,  the  task  of 
endowing  a  creature  with  rapid  motion  on  the 
ground  without  external  feet  or  wings  seems 
hardly  less  hopeless.  Those  who  have  seen  a 
snake  rapidly  vanish  among  the  herbage,  or  climb 
the  side  of  a  dry  ditch,  and  escape  among  the 
thorns  of  the  hedge,  will  allow  that  the  task  has 
been  most  efficiently  performed. 

And  how  ? 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  geometrical  neatness  and 
nicety  in  the  sinuous  motion  of  snakes  and  other 
serpents,  (says  good  Mr.  Derham,  canon  of  Wind- 
sor, and  rector  of  Upminster,  in  Essex ;)  for  the 
assisting  in  which  action,  the  annular  scales  under 
their  body  are  very  remarkable,  lying  cross  the 
belly,  contrary  to  what  those  in  the  back  and  the 
rest  of  the  body  do  ;  also,  as  the  edges  of  the  fore- 
most scales  lie  over  the  edges  of  their  following 
scales  ;  so  as  that  when  each  scale  is  drawn  back, 
or  set  a  little  upright  by  its  muscle,  the  outer  edge 
thereof,  (or  foot,  it  may  be  called,)  is  raised  also  a 
little  from  the  body,  to  lay  hold  on  the  earth,  and 
so  promote  and  facilitate  the  serpent's  motion. 
This  is  what  may  be  easily  seen  in  the  slough  of  the 
belly  of  the  serpent  kind.  But  there  is  another 
admirable  piece  of  mechanism,  that  my  antipathy 
to  those  animals  hath  prevented  my  prying  into ; 
and  that  is,  that  every  scale  hath  a  distinct  muscle, 
one  end  of  which  is  tacked  to  the  middle  of  its 
scale  ;  the  other,  to  the  upper  edge  of  its  following 
scale.  This,  Dr.  Tyson  found  in  the  rattle-snake, 
and  I  doubt  not  is  in  the  whole  tribe. 

Certainly ;  and  Tyson  and  others,  who  either 
had  not  the  Rev.  W.  Derham's  antipathy  or  con- 
quered it,  did  not  stop  at  externals,  but  went  a 
little  deeper  into  the  matter. 

Blasius  remarks  that  the  knots  of  the  vertebr« 
of  the  viper  are  shorter  towards  the  head,  and 
hence  that  reptile  can  easily  bend  itself  both  back- 
wards and  sideways.  Tyson  observes,  in  his 
Anatomy  of  the  Rattlesnake,  when  treating  of  the 
vertebrae  and  the  other  curious  articulations,  that 
the  round  ball  in  the  lower  part  of  the  upper  ver- 
tebra? enters  a  socket  of  the  upper  part  of  the 
lower  vertebrae,  "  like  as  the  head  of  the  osfemo- 
ris  doth  the  acetabulurn  of  the  05  ischii ;  by  which 
contrivance,  as  also  the  articulation  with  one  an- 
other, they  have  that  free  mouon  of  winding  their 
bodies  any  way." 

In  the  skeleton  of  the  largest  python  in  th« 
museum  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of 
England,  which  measures  sixteen  feet  six  inches 
in  length,  there  are  three  hundred  and  forty-eight 
vertebrae.  Of  these  two  hundred  and  seventy-nine 
support  free  or  movable  ribs,  the  rest  are  caudal  ver- 
tebrae. When  the  serpent  begins  to  advance,  the  ribs 
of  the  opposite  sides  are  drawn  apart  from  each  other, 
and  the  small  cartilages  at  the  end  of  them  are  bent 
upon  the  upper  surfaces  of  the  abdominal  scuta,  on 
which  the  ends  of  the  ribs  rest.  The  ribs  move  in 
pairs,  and  the  scute  under  each  pair  is  necessarily 
carried  along  with  it.  The  scute  lays  hold  of  the 


116 


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ground  by  its  posterior  edge,  and  becomes  a  fixed 
point  for  renewed  progression.  Sir  Everard 
Home,  who  gives  this  description  of  the  serpent's 
motion,  remarks  that  it  is  beautifully  seen  in 
climbing  over  an  angle  to  get  upon  a  flat  surface ; 
and  so  it  is.  Nor  will  the  observer  find  many 
species,  not  even  excepting  the  pythons  and  boas, 
in  which  it  is  very  well  seen,  where  this  subcu- 
ticular  multipedous  mode  of  going  through  the 
world  is  more  visibly  manifested  than  in  the  puff 
adders.*  But  Sir  Everard  justly  says,  that  the 
large  abdominal  scuta  of  the  boa  may  be  considered 
as  hoofs  or  shoes,  best  fitted  for  this  kind  of  pro- 
gressive motion. 

Sir  Everard  further  shows  that  there  are  five 
sets  of  muscles  which  bring  the  ribs  forward. 
One  set  goes  from  the  transverse  process  of  each 
vertebra  to  the  rib  immediately  behind  it,  which 
rib  is  attached  to  the  next  vertebra.  The  next 
set  starts  from  the  rib  a  little  way  from  the  spine, 
just  where  the  former  terminates,  passes  over  two 
ribs,  sending  a  slip  to  each,  and  is  inserted  into 
the  third  ;  a  slip  also  connects  it  with  the  next 
succeeding  muscle.  Under  this  comes  the  third 
set  arising  from  the  posterior  side  of  each  rib,  and 
passes  over  two  ribs,  sending  a  lateral  slip  to  the 
next  muscle,  being  inserted  into  the .  third  rib 
behind  it.  The  fourth  set  passes  from  one  rib 
over  the  next.  The  fifth  set  goes  from  rib  to  rib. 

Within,  the  apparatus  is  not  less  beautifully 
adjusted.  On  the  inside  of  the  chest  a  strong  set 
of  muscles  is  attached  to  the  anterior  surface  of 
each  vertebra,  and  passes  obliquely  forwards  over 
four  ribs,  to  be  inserted  nearly  in  the  middle  of 
the  fifth.  Then  comes  from  each  rib  a  strong  flat 
muscle  advancing  on  each  side  before  the  viscera, 
to  form  the  abdominal  muscles,  and  unites  in  a 
middle  tendon.  Thus,  the  lower  half  of  each  rib, 
which  is  beyond  the  origin  of  this  muscle,  and 
only  laterally  connected  to  it  by  loose  cellular 
membrane,  is  external  to  the  belly  of  the  animal, 
and  is  employed  for  the  purpose  of  progression  ; 
while  the  half  of  each  rib  next  the  spine,  as  far  as 
the  lungs  extend,  is  made  ancillary  to  respiration. 
At  the  termination  of  each  rib  is  a  small  cartilage, 
corresponding  in  shape  to  the  rib,  and  tapering  to 
the  point.  The  cartilages  of  the  opposite  ribs 
are  not  connected,  so  that  when  the  ribs  are  drawn 
outwards  by  the  muscles,  they  are  separated,  and 
rest  their  whole  length  on  the  inner  surface  of  the 
abdominal  scutes,  to  which  they  are  connected  by 
a  set  of  short  muscles,  and  they  have  also  a  con- 
nexion with  the  cartilages  of  the  neighboring  ribs 
by  means  of  a  set  of  short  straight  muscles. 

Endo\  ?d  with  this  apparatus,  the  serpent, 
when  moving,  is  altered  in  shape,  from  a  circular 
or  oval  form  to  one  approaching  a  triangular  figure, 
the  surface  on  the  ground  forming  the  base. 

But  before  Sir  Everard  entered  into  this  inquiry, 
Sir  Joseph  Banks,  with  that  instinctive  acuteness 
which  belonged  to  him,  had  remarked,  as  he 
watched  a  snake  moving  briskly  along  the  carpet, 
thai  na  itiought  he  saw  the  ribs  come  forward,  in 

*  Clotho  arietans. 


succession,  like  the  feet  of  a  caterpillar.  Thin 
remark  led  Sir  Everard  to  examine  the  reptile's 
motion  with  more  attention.  He  put  his  hand 
under  the  serpent's  belly,  and  while  the  snake 
was  in  the  act  of  passing  over  his  palm,  he  dis- 
tinctly felt  the  ends  of  the  ribs  pressing  upon  it, 
in  regular  succession,  so  as  to  leave  no  doubt  on 
his  mind  that  the  ribs,  forming  so  many  pairs  of 
levers,  were  the  instruments  by  which  the  animal 
moved  its  body  from  place  to  place. 

Those  who  have  crippled  a  common  snake  or  a 
viper  with  a  blow  of  a  stick  have  seen  how  easily 
this  beautiful  machinery  may  be  mutilated  and 
rendered  useless.  When  his  nurse,  by  way  of 
preventing  her  charge  from  straying  into  a  copse, 
told  him  that  snakes  were  there,  the  young  Lion 
of  the  North  said,  "  Then  give  me  a  switch,  that  I 
may  go  in  and  kill  them  all."  The  larger  and  con- 
stricting serpents  are  protected  by  the  great  mass 
of  muscle  from  dislocation  or  injury  of  the  spine 
by  such  a  sudden  stroke,  but  even  they  are  com- 
pelled to  relax  their  folds  by  a  superior  force. 

As  Mr.  Gordon  Gumming  was  examining  the 
spoor  of  the  game  by  a  South  African  fountain,  he 
suddenly  detected  an  enormous  old  rock-snake 
stealing  in  beneath  a  mass  of  rock  beside  him,  not 
quite  so  large,  perhaps,  as  that  exhibited  in  the 
time  of  Augustus  at  Rome,  and  which  Suetonius 
tells  us  was  fifty  cubits  in  length  ;  but  still  a  ser- 
pent of  very  formidable  dimensions. 

He  was  (says  the  hunter)  truly  an  enormous 
snake ;  and  having  never  before  dealt  with  this 
species  of  game,  I  did  not  exactly  know  how  to  set 
about  capturing  him.  Being  very  anxious  to  pre- 
serve the  skin  entire,  and  not  wishing  to  have  re- 
course to  my  rifle,  I  cut  a  stout  and  tough  stick, 
about  eight  feet  long,  and  having  lightened  myself 
of  my  shooting-belt,  I  commenced  the  attack.  Seiz- 
ing him  by  the  tail,  I  tried  to  get  him  out  of  his 
place  of  refuge ;  but  I  hauled  in  vain.  He  only 
drew  his  large  folds  firmer  together ;  I  could  not 
move  him.  At  length  I  got  a  rheim  round  one  of 
his  folds,  about  the  middle  of  his  body,  and  Klein- 
boy  and  I  commenced  hauling  away  in  good  earnest. 
The  snake,  finding  the  ground  too  hot  for  him,  re- 
laxed his  coils,  and  suddenly  bringing  round  his 
head  to  the  front  he  sprang  out  at  us  like  an  arrow, 
with  his  immense  and  hideous  mouth  opened  to  its 
largest  dimensions,  and,  before  I  could  get  out  of 
his  way,  he  was  clean  out  of  his  hole,  and  made  a 
second  spring,  throwing  himself  forward  about  eight 
or  ten  feet,  and  snapping  his  horrid  fangs  within  a 
foot  of  my  naked  legs. 

Very  fortunate  for  Mr.  Gumming  it  was  that 
the  serpent  did  not  succeed  in  fastening  on  him ; 
if  it  had  done  so,  he  would  most  undoubtedly  have 
been  encircled  in  its  deadly  embrace.  Once  with- 
in the  constricting  folds,  Kleinboy  would  hardly 
have  succeeded  in  extricating  him  alive,  and  we 
might  never  have  seen  one  of  the  most  stirring 
books  published  of  late  years.  Our  Nimrod, 
however,  sprang  out  of  his  way,  and  getting  hold 
of  the  green  oough  he  had  cut,  he  returned  to  the 
charge : — 

The  snake  now  glided  along  at  top  speed ;  he 
knew  the  ground  well,  and  was  making  for  a  mass 


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117 


of  broken  rocks,  where  he  would  have  been  beyond 
my  reach,  but  before  he  could  gain  this  place  of 
refuge  I  caught  him  two  or  three  tremendous  whacks 
on  the  head.  He,  however,  held  on,  and  gained  a 
pool  of  muddy  water,  which  he  was  rapidly  crossing, 
when  I  again  belabored  him,  and  at  length  reduced 
.his  pace  to  a  stand.  We  then  hanged  him  by  the 
neck  to  a  bough  of  a  tree,  and  in  about  fifteen 
minutes  he  seemed  dead,  but  he  again  became  very 
troublesome  during  the  operation  of  skinning,  twist- 
ing his  body  in  all  manner  of  ways.  This  serpent 
measured  fourteen  feet. 

There  is  no  amount  of  torture  that  man  —  aye, 
and  woman  too,  will  not  inflict  on  an  animal  that 
does  not  cry  out.  If  the  eels,  which  the  fish-wife 
or  the  cook  skins  with  so  much  unconcern,  could 
express  their  agonies  audibly,  nothing  would  in- 
duce either  of  those  delicate  females  to  continue 
the  horrible  and  merciless  operation  ;  but  the  eels 
are  mute,  and  suffer  accordingly. 

Two  works  of  art,  ancient  and  modern,  rise 
before  us  ;  one  in  all  the  simplicity  and  purity  of 
marble  ;  the  other  glowing  with  all  the  enchant- 
ment of  color.  In  the  one,  the  agonized  priest  of 
Apollo  and  his  hapless  children  vainly  struggle  in 
the  folds  of  the  serpents  :  — 

Laocoonta  petunt  :  et  primum  parva  duorum 
Corpora  natorum  serpens  amplexus  uterque 
Implicat,  et  miseros  morsu  depascitur  artus. 
Post  ipsum  auxilio  subeuntem  ac  tela  fereutem 
Corripiunt,  spirisque  ligant  ingentibus  ;  et  jam 
Bis  medium  amplexi,  bis  collo  squamea  circum 
Terga  dati  superant  capite  et  cervicibus  altis. 
Ille  simul  manibus  tendit  divellere  nodos, 
Perfuses  sanie  vittas  atroque  veneno  ; 
Clamores  simul  horrendos  ad  sidera  tollit. 

In  -that  marvellous  group, 

All  made  out  of  the  carver's  brain, 

the  serpents  are  so  represented,  that  the  spectator 
feels  that  there  is  no  hope  for  the  victims.  The 
very  opposite,  of  it  appears  in  the  subject  made 
musical  by  the  exquisite  Doric  reed  of  Theocritus, 
and  brought  in  all  its  grandeur  before  the  eye  by 
the  bold  and  beautiful  pencil  of  our  own  Reynolds. 

In  the  idyll  of  the  Greek,*  opening  with  one  of 
the  most  charming  material  scenes  and  good  nights 
ever  presented  to  the  imagination  ,  the  serpents  are 
made  to  relax  their  folds  when  the  spines  of  their 
backs  waxed  weary  under  the  killing  grasp  of  the 
Infant  Hercules  ;  and  in  the  British  picture  you 
see  at  once  that  they  are  dying,  overcome  by  the 
vigor  of  the  son  of  Jupiter. 

But  as  long  as  the  locomotive  machinery  is  in 
good  order,  the  sinuous,  graceful  windings  of  the 
serpent,  joined  to  the  bright  hues  with  which  the 
skin  of  the  majority  of  the  species  is  enamelled, 
make  it  a  pleasing  object  to  those  who  can  over- 
come the  natural  antipathy  felt  by  so  many  at  their 
presence,  and  incline  them  to  sympathize  with  the 
Indian  girl  — 

Stay,  stay,  thou  lovely,  fearful  snake, 
Nor  hide  thee  in  yon  darksome  brake  ; 
But  let  me  oft  thy  form  review, 


torra.  —  x,  1, 


Thy  sparkling  eyes  and  golden  hue  ; 
From  thence  a  chaplet  shall  be  wove 
To  grace  the  youth  I  dearest  love. 

Then,  ages  hence,  when  thou  no  more 
Shalt  glide  along  the  sunny  shore, 
Thy  copied  beauties  shall  be  seen  ; 
Thy  vermeil  red  and  living  green 
In  mimic  folds  thou  shall  display  ; 
Stay,  lovely,  fearful  adder  stay  ! 

To  be  sure,  poets,  as  well  as  doctors,  differ ; 
and  Coleridge,  in  "  that  singularly  wild  and  beau- 
tiful poem,"  tells  us  that 

A  snake's  small  eye  blinks  dull  and  sly. 
And  dull  it  is  sometimes,  but  only  before  moulting, 
for  the  skin  of  the  cornea  comes  off  with  the  rest 
of  the  slough.  When  the  serpent  comes  out  in 
its  new  coat,  with  its  bright  eye  and  elegant  action, 
it  is  as  different  from  its  former  self  as  Talley- 
rand in  solitary  dishabille  was  from  Talleyrand 
dressed  in  a  brilliant  assembly,  through  whose 
crowded  mazes  he  would  wind  his  way,  his  very 
lameness  lending  grace  to  his  gently  undulating 
progress. 

Those  who  define  a  serpent  as  an  apod,  or  foot- 
less animal,  carry  their  definition  too  far.  The 
large  constricting  serpents,  and  not  only  those, 
hut  eryx  and  tortrix,  are  furnished  with  the  rudi- 
ments of  hinder  extremities,  which  appear  to  have 
escaped  the  notice  of  Sir  Everard  Home,  but  did 
not  escape  that  of  Dr.  Mayer.  Observing  the 
spur,  or  nail,  on  each  side  of  the  vent  in  the 
bo'idce,  the  doctor  examined  further,  and  found  it 
to  be  a  true  nail,  in  the  cavity  of  which  is  a  little 
semi-cartilaginous  bone,  ungual  phalanx,  articu- 
lated with  another  much  better  developed  bone, 
which  is  concealed  under  the  skin.  This  second 
bone  of  the  rudimentary  foot  presented  an  external 
thick  condyle,  with  which  the  ungual  phalanx  was 
articulated,  and  was  furnished  besides  with  a 
smaller  internal  apophysis.  Proceeding  in  his 
investigation,  he  laid  bare  a  rudimentary  tibia 
with  its  muscles,  and  made  out  a  complete  pos- 
terior limb,  such  as  it  was,  the  foot  being  furnished 
with  its  abductor  and  adductor  muscles.  Upon 
these  elements  he  founded  his  Phcenopoda,  a  family 
of  Ophidians,  having  the  rudiments  of  a  foot  visible 
externally,  containing  the  genera  boa,  python,  eryx, 
and  tortrix. 

The  author  of  the  article  "  Boa,"  in  the  Penny 
Cydopcedia,  where  the  details  of  this  curious  dis- 
covery are  given,  observes,  that  no  one  can  read 
of  the  habits  of  these  reptiles  in  a  state  of  nature 
without  perceiving  the  advantage  which  they  gain, 
when,  holding  on  by  their  tails  on  a  tree,  their 
heads  and  bodies  in  ambush,  and  half-floating  on 
some  sedgy  river,  they  surprise  the  thirsty  animal 
that  seeks  the  stream.  These  hooks  help  the 
serpent  to  maintain  a  fixed  point ;  they  become  a 
fulcrum,  which  .gives  a  double  power  to  his 
energies. 

We  need  not  go  to  the  Valley  of  Diamonds 
with  Sinbad  to  find  enormous  serpents.  The 
companions  of  other  sailors  have  bee,n  swallowed 
up  by  those  monstrous  reptiles,  as  was  too  clearly 
proved  to  the  crew  of  the  Malay  proa,  who  an- 


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chored  for  the  night  close  to  the  island  of  Celebes. 
One  of  the  party  went  on  shore  to  look  for  betel- 
nut,  and,  on  returning  from  his  search,  stretched 
his  wearied  limbs  to  rest  on  the  beach,  where  he 
fell  asleep,  as  his  companions  believed.  They 
were  roused  in  the  middle  of  the  night  by  his 
screams,  and  hurried  on  shore  to  his  assistance. 
But  they  came  too  late.  A  monstrous  snake  had 
crushed  him  to  death.  All  they  could  do  was  to 
wreak  their  vengeance  on  his  destroyer,  whose 
head  they  cut  off,  and  bore  it  with  the  body  of 
their  shipmate  to  their  vessel.  The  marks  of  the 
teeth  of  the  serpent,  which  was  about  thirty  feet 
in  length,  were  impressed  on  the  dead  man's  right 
wrist,  and  the  disfigured  corpse  showed  that  it  had 
been  crushed  by  constriction  round  the  head,  neck, 
breast,  and  thigh.  When  the  snake's  jaws  were 
extended,  they  admitted  a  body  the  size  of  a  man's 
head. 

By  great  Apollo's  arm  the  python  slain, 

O'er  many  a  rood  lay  stretch'd  upon  the  plain. 

Latona's  son  did  his  work  with  the  graceful 
ease  of  a  divinity — oh,  that  the  work  of  Leontius* 
had  been  spared  to  us ! — but  the  mortals  who 
were  opposed  by  the  enormous  python  near  Utica 
had  a  very  different  task  to  perform  : — 

Well  knowne  it  is  that  Attilius  Regulus,  generall 
under  the  Romans  during  the  wars  against  the 
Carthaginians,  assailed  a  serpent  near  the  river 
Bagrada,f  which  carried  in  length  120  foot ;  and 
before  he  could  conquer  him  was  driven  to  discharge 
upon  him  arrows,  quarrels,  stones,  bullets,  and  such- 
like shot,  out  of  brakes,  slings,  and  other  engines 
of  artillery,  as  if  he  had  given  assault  to  some  strong 
warlike  towne ;  the  proofe  whereof  was  to  be  seen 
by  the  marks  remaining  in  his  skin  and  chawes, 
which,  until  the  war  of  Numantia,  remained  in  a 
temple  or  conspicuous  place  of  Rome. 

But,  though  vanquished,  the  monster  had  his 
revenge  ;  for  his  huge  carrion  and  corrupt  gore  so 
polluted  the  air  and  waters  that  his  conquerors 
were  obliged  to  move  their  camp,  not,  however, 
without  taking  his  skin  with  them  as  spolia  opima. 
General  Peter  Both  made  a  better  thing  of  it  with 
a  great  Indian  python,  for  he  and  his  friends 
feasted  on  a  magnificent  wild  boar,  which  the 
enemy  had  pouched  just  before  its  defeat  and 
death-! 

The  African  or  Asiatic  pythons  may  have  been 
in  the  eye  of  the  sculptor  of  the  Laocoon,  but  the 
models  may  have  existed  nearer  home,  "  for  that 

*  This  "famous  imageur,"  as  Philemon  Holland 
calls  him,  who  "expressed  lively  in  brasse,"  executed, 
among  other  bronzes,  "one  Apollo  playing  upon  his 
harpe ;  as  also  another  Apollo,  and  the  serpent  killed 
with  his  arrowes,  which  image  he  surnamed  Dicaeus, 
i.  e.t  just ;  for  that  when  the  city  of  Thebes  was  won 
by  Alexander  the  Great,  the  gold  which  he  hid  in  the 
bosome  thereof  when  hee  fled,  was  found  there  safe 
and  not  diminished,  when  the  enemy  was  gone  and  he 
returned." 

t  Some  write  "  Bagradas  "  and  "Magradas"  (Me- 
jerda). 

t  Bontius.  Regulus  was  not  the  only  great  captain 
who  had  to  encounter  other  than  human  enemies.  It 
was,  no  doubt,  very  smart  to  say, 

Philip  fought  men,  but  Alexander  women, 


we  see  in  Italy  other  serpents  named  boae,  so  big 
and  huge,  that  in  the  daies  of  the  Emperor  Clau- 
dius, there  was  one  of  them  killed  in  the  Vaticane, 
within  the  belly  whereof  there  was  found  an  infant 
all  whole."*  Europe  is  separate  from  Africa  by 
no  very  wide  gulf — 

It  is  a  narrow  strait, 

You  can  see  the  blue  hills  over ; 

and  the  character  of  some  of  the  vegetation  of  the 
south  reminds  the  observer  of  that  of  Africa. 

But  to  see  the  true  boae  in  their  native  forests 
we  must  cross  the  Atlantic ;  and  those  who  are 
not  familiar  with  the  story  may  have  no  objection 
to  learn  how  Captain  Stedman  fared  in  an 
encounter  with  one  twenty-two  feet  and  some 
inches  in  length,  during  his  residence  in  Surinam. 

whatever  injustice  there  may  have  been  in  a  sarcasm 
so  dearly  paid  for;  but,  without  standing  up  for  the 
bravery  of  the  men  he  conquered  on  their  own  soil — 
men  who  fought  valiantly  pro  aris  et  focis,  Philip's 
son,  according  to  Vincentius,  was  sorely  beset  by 
monsters  as  well  as  men.  To  say  nothing  of  the 
"Hippodami,"  which  rushed  upon  and  devoured  his 
troops  as  they  were  passing  the  Indian  river,  when, 
in  indignation  at  those  who  had  led  his  Macedonians 
into  such  peril  without  proper  precautions,  he  ordered 
a  hundred  and  fifty  of  his  generals  to  be  thrown  into 
the  stream,  where  the  hippodami  aforesaid  did  execu- 
tion upon  them — -justa  peena  afecerunt — to  say  nothing 
of  that  episode,  his  soldiers  had  other  horrors  to  con- 
front. His  camp  was  pitched  near  a  lake,  and  the 
weary  Greeks  were  reposing  after  the  heavy  fatigues 
of  the  day,  when,  at  the  rising  of  the  moon,  down  came 
an  army  of  scorpions  for  their  accustomed  night- 
draught.  They  were  followed  by  a  host  of  cerastes 
and  other  serpents,  of  all  sizes  and  colors,  some  red. 
some  black,  some  white,  and  others  glittering  like 
gold.  '  The  whole  country  resounded  with  their  hiss- 
ings. The  affrighted  soldiers  threw  themselves  in- 
stinctively into  the  serried  phalanx,  and  with  their 
spears  and  shields  crushed  and  pierced  the  invaders, 
and  the  light  troops  plied  them  with  fire.  After  a 
fight  of  about  two  hours,  some  of  the  reptiles  were 
killed,  some  got  their  drink,  and  the  survivors,  to  the 
joy  of  the  troops,  departed  to  their  hiding-places. 
Then,  up  to  the  third  hour  of  the  night,  the  garrison 
had  a  little  rest,  when  down  came  immense  serpents, 
as  long  and  as  big  as  columns,  with  two  or  three 
heads  apiece.  With  these  the  Macedonians  fought 
for  more  than  an  hour — not  by  Shrewsbury  clock — and 
routed  them,  but  not  without  the  loss  of  thirty  slaves 
and  twenty  soldiers.  After  the  departure  of  the  ser- 
pents appeared  enormous  crabs,  with  shells  like 
crocodiles.  Many  of  these  were  burnt,  but  many 
fought  their  way  into  the  lake.  The  harassed  troops 
now  began  to  hope  that  their  troubles  were,  for  the 
present,  ended,  when  down  came  white  lions  as  big  as 
bulls,  great  boars,  lynxes,  tigers,  and  horrible  pan- 
thers ;  and  as  soon  as  they  were  driven  off,  an  army  of 
bats  as  big  as  pigeons  was  about  their  ears.  But, 
above  all,  there  came  a  beast  bigger  than  an  elephant, 
black,  with  a  head  like  a  horse,  and  its  forehead  armed 
with  three  horns,  called  by  the  Indians  "odonta." 
This-  odonta,  having  drunk  at  the  lake,  espied  the 
camp,  and  immediately  charged  it,  notwithstanding 
the  fires.  In  this  last  encounter  six-and-thirty  soldiers 
were  slain;  and  fifty-three  falchions  rendered  useless. 
At  length  the  monster  died,  transfixed  by  spears. 
While  the  men  were  thus  employed,  the  quadrupeds 
were  attacked  and  killed  by  an  army  of  Indian  rats. 
Those  who  would  see  what  the  hippodami  were  like, 
as  well  as  the  scorpions,  serpents,  crabs,  (which,  by 
the  way,  have  the  form  of  lobsters  or  crayfish,)  white 
lions,  panthers,  bats,  and,  above  all,  the  odonta  that 
figured  in  this  night  attack,  let  them  turn  to  the  de- 
lectable woodcuts  in  the  Prodigiorum  ac  Ostcntorum 
Chronicon—  Basileae,  1557. 
*  Holland's  Pliny. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


119 


Captain  Stedman  was  lying  in  his  hammock,  as 
his  vessel  floated  down  the  river,  when  the  senti- 
nel told  him  that  he  had  seen  and  challenged 
something  black  moving  in  the  brushwood  on  the 
beach,  which  gave  no  answer.  Up  rose  the  cap- 
tain, manned  the  canoe  that  accompanied  his  ves- 
sel, and  rowed  to  the  shore  to  ascertain  what 
it  was.  One  of  his  slaves  cried  out  that  it  was 
no  negro  but  a  great  snake,  that  the  captain  might 
shoot  if  he  pleased.  The  captain,  having  no  such 
inclination,  ordered  all  hands  to  return  on  hoard. 
The  slave,  David,  who  had  first  challenged  the 
snake,  then  begged  leave  to  step  forward  and 
shoot  it.  This  seems  to  have  roused  the  captain, 
for  he  determined  to  kill  it  himself,  and  loaded 
with  hall  cartridge. 

The  master  and  slave  then  proceeded.  David 
cut  a  path  with  a  bill-hook,  and  behind  came  a  ma- 
rine with  three  more  loaded  guns.  They  had  not 
gone  above  twenty  yards  through  mud  and  water, 
the  negro  looking  every  way  with  uncommon 
vivacity,  when  he  suddenly  called  out,  "  Me  see 
snakee  !"  and,  sure  enough,  there  the  reptile  lay, 
coiled  up  under  the  fallen  leaves  and  rubbish  of 
the  trees.  So  well  covered  was  it  that  some  time 
elapsed  before  the  captain  could  perceive  its  head, 
not  above  sixteen  feet  from  him,  moving  its  forked 
tongue,  while  its  vividly  bright  eyes  appeared  to 
emit  sparks  of  fire.  The  captain  now  rested  his 
piece  upon  a  branch,  to  secure  a  surer  aim,  and 
fired.  The  ball  missed  the  head,  but  went 
through  the  body,  when  the  snake  struck  round 
with  such  astonishing  force  as  to  cut  away  all  the 
underwood  around  it  with  the  facility  of  a  scythe 
mowing  grass,  and,  flouncing  with  its  tail,  made 
the  mud  and  dirt  fly  over  their  heads  to  a  con- 
siderable distance.  This  commotion  seems  to 
have  sent  the  party  to  the  right  about ;  for  they 
took  to  their  heels  and  crowded  into  the  canoe. 
David,  however,  entreated  the  captain  to  renew 
the  charge,  assuring  him  that  the  snake  would  be 
quiet  in  a  few  minutes,  and  that  it  was  neither 
able  nor  inclined  to  pursue  them,  supporting  his 
opinion  by  walking  before  the  captain  till  the  lat- 
ter should  be  ready  to  fire. 

They  now  found  the  snake  a  little  removed 
from  its  former  station,  very  quiet,  with  its 
head,  as  before,  lying  out  among  the  fallen  leaves, 
rotten  bark,  and  old  moss.  Stedman  fired  at  it 
immediately,  but  with  no  better  success  than  at 
first ;  and  the  enraged  animal,  being  hut  slightly 
wounded  by  the  second  shot,  sent  up  such  a  cloud 
of  dust  and  dirt  as  the  captain  had  never  seen,  ex- 
cept in  a  whirlwind  ;  and  away  they  all  again 
retreated  to  their  canoe.  Tired  of  the  exploit, 
Stedman  gave  orders  to  row  towards  the  barge  ; 
but  the  persevering  David  still  entreating  that  he 
might  be  permitted  to  kill  the  reptile,  the  captain 
determined  to  make  a  third  and  last  attempt  in  his 
company ;  and  they  this  time  directed  their  fire 
with  such  effect  that  the  snake  was  shot  by  one  of 
them  through  the  head. 

The  vanquished  monster  was  then  secured  by  a 
running  noose  passed  over  its  head,  not  without 


some  difficulty,  however ;  for,  though  it  was  mor- 
tally wounded,  it  continued  to  writhe  and  twist 
about  so  as  to  render  a  near  approach  dangerous. 
The  serpent  was  dragged  to  the  shore,  and  made 
fast  to  the  canoe,  in  order  that  it  might  be  towed 
to  the  vessel,  and  continued  swimming  like  an  eel 
till  the  party  arrived  on  board,  where  it  was 
finally  determined  that  the  snake  should  be  again 
taken  on  shore,  and  there  skinned  for  the  sake  of 
its  oil.  This  was  accordingly  done  ;  and  David, 
having  climbed  a  tree  with  the  end  of  a  rope  in 
his  hand,  let  it  down  over  a  strong  forked  bough, 
the  other  negroes  hoisted  away,  and  the  serpent 
was  suspended  from  the  tree.  Then  David,  quit- 
ting the  tree,  with  a  sharp  knife  between  his 
teeth,  clung  fast  upon  the  suspended  snake,  still 
twisting  and  twining,  and  proceeded  to  perform 
the  same  operation  that  Marsyas  underwent,  only 
that  David  commenced  his  work  by  ripping  the 
subject  up ;  he  then  stripped  down  the  skin  as  he 
descended.  Stedman  acknowledges,  that  though 
he  perceived  that  the  snake  was  no  longer  able  to 
do  the  operator  any  harm,  he  could  not  without 
emotion  see  a  naked  man,  black  and  bloody,  cling- 
ing with  arms  and  legs  round  the  slimy  and  yet 
living  monster.  The  skin  and  above  four  gallons 
of  clarified  fat,  or  rather  oil,  were  the  spoils 
secured  on  this  occasion  ;  full  as  many  gallons 
more  seem  to  have  been  wasted.  The  negroes 
cut  the  flesh  into  pieces,  intending  to  feast  on  it ; 
but  the  captain  would  not  permit  them  to  eat  what 
he  regarded  as  disgusting  food,  though  they 
declared  that  it  was  exceedingly  good  and  whole- 
some. The  negroes  were  right  and  the  captain 
was  wrong  ;  the  flesh  of  most  serpents  is  very 
good  and  nourishing,  to  say  nothing  of  the  restora- 
tive qualities  attributed  to  it,  and  noticed  in  a 
former  paper. 

One  of  the  most  curious  accounts  of  the  benefit 
derived  by  man  from  the  serpent  race,  is  related 
by  Kircher  (see  Mus.  Worm.),  where  it  is  stated 
that  near  the  village  of  Sassa,  about  eight  miles 
from  the  city  of  Bracciano,  in  Italy,  there  is  a 
hole  or  cavern,  called  la  Grotta  delli  Serpi,  which 
is  large  enough  to  contain  two  men,  and  is  all 
perforated  with  small  holes  like  a  sieve.  From 
these  holes,  in  the  beginning  of  spring,  issue  a 
prodigious  number  of  small,  different  colored  ser- 
pents, of  which  every  year  produces  a  new  brood, 
but  which  seem  to  have  no  poisonous  quality. 
Such  persons  as  are  afflicted  with  scurvy,  leprosy, 
palsy,  gout,  and  other  ills  to  which  flesh  is  heir, 
were  laid  down  naked  in  the  cavern,  and,  their 
bodies  being  subjected  to  a  copious  sweat  from  the 
heat  of  the  subterraneous  vapors,  the  young  ser- 
pents were  said  to  fasten  themselves  on  every  part, 
and  extract,  by  sucking,  every  diseased  or  vitiated 
humor ;  so  that,  after  some  repetitions  of  this 
treatment,  the  patients  were  restored  to  perfect 
health.  Kircher,  who  visited  this  cave,  found  it 
warm,  and  answering  in  every  way  the  description 
he  had  of  it.  He  saw  the  holes,  heard  a  mur- 
muring, hissing  noise  in  them,  and  though  he  owns 
that  he  missed  seeing  the  serpents,  it  not  being 


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the  season  of  their  creeping  out,  yet  he  saw  great 
numbers  of  their  exuviae  or  sloughs,  and  an  elm 
growing  hard  by  laden  with  them.  The  discovery 
of  this  air  Schlangenbad  was  said  to  have  been 
made  by  a  leper  going  from  Rome  to  some  baths 
near  this  place,  who,  fortunately,  losing  his  way, 
and  being  benighted,  turned  into  this  cave.  Find- 
ing it  very  warm,  and  being  very  weary,  he  pulled 
off  his  clothes  and  fell  into  such  a  deep  sleep  that 
he  did  not  feel  the  serpents  about  him  till  they  had 
wrought  his  cure. 

Such  instances  of  good-will  towards  man,  com- 
bined with  the  periodical  renovation  of  youthful 
appearance,  by  a  change  of  the  whole  external 
skin,  and  the  character  of  the  serpent  for  wisdom, 
contributed,  doubtless,  to  raise  the  form  to  a  place 
among  the  deities. 

Wee  may  not  forget  that  Genii  were  sometimes 
paynted  by  the  Paynims  in  the  forme  and  shape  of 
man,  having  a  home,  betokening  plentie  orabound- 
ance  in  their  hand  ;  as  is  yet  to  be  seen  in  many 
olde  and  auncient  stampes  or  coynes  ;  and  some- 
times in  the  forme  of  serpents  ;  which  may  well 
serve  to  understand  that  verse  of  Persius — 

Pinge  duos  angues,  pueri,  sacer  est  locus,  &c. 

And  this  did  not  Servius  forget,  speaking  of  that 
serpent  which  ^Eneas  (in  his  anniversaries  or 
yearly  sacrifices,  celebrated  to  the  name  of  his 
father  Anchises)  did  see  to  creepe  upon  his  tombe ; 
touching  the  which  (as  Virgill  saith)  ^Eneas  was 
uncertaine  whether  it  were  the  Genius  of  his 
father  or  of  the  place.  And  this  may  also  helpe  to 
the  interpretation  of  another  place  in  Theocritus, 
in  his  booke  of  Characters,  (which  I  have  also  cor- 
rected from  the  vulgar  and  common  reading,) 
where  he  saith,  that  a  superstitious  person,  seeing 
by  chaunce  a  serpent  in  his  house,  did  consecrate 
unto  it  a  little  chappell  in  the  same  place.  But 
my  meaning  is  not  here  to  speake  of  serpents, 
which  (as  Plutarch  saith)  were  consecrated  unto 
noble  and  heroicall  persons,  and  which,  after  their 
deaths,  did  appeare  neere  to  their  corpses ;  for  this 
is  not  any  part  of  our  matter ;  albeit  a  man  may 
very  well  fit,  unto  the  Genii,  that  same  which  he 
hath  delivered  touching  this  point.* 

Fond  of  milk  and  wine,  these  genii,  like  the 
lubricus  anguis  of  Virgil's  fifth  book,  tasted  the 
libations  and  were  regarded  as  sacred. 

Their  aptitude  for  lameness  was  another  quality 
which  aided  their  elevation.  The  little  girl  men- 
tioned by  Maria  Edgeworth,  of  blessed  memory, 
took  out  her  little  porringer  daily  to  share  her 
breakfast  with  a  friendly  snake  that  came  from  its 
hiding-place  to  her  call  ;  and  when  the  guest 
intruded  beyond  the  due  limits,  she  would  give  it 
a  tap  on  the  head  with  her  spoon,  and  the  admoni- 
tion, "  Eat  on  your  own  side,  I  say." 

A  lad  whom  I  knew  kept  a  common  snake  in 
London,  which  he  had  rendered  so  tame  that  it 
was  quite  at  ease  with  him  and  very  fond  of  its 
master.  When  taken  out  of  its  box,  it  would 

*  A  Treatise  of  Specters  or  Straunge  Sights,  Visions, 
and  Apparitions  appearing  sensibly  unto  Men.  At 
London.  Printed  by  Val.  S.  for  Matthew  Lownes. 
1COS. 


creep  up  his  sleeve,  come  out  at  the  top,  wind 
itself  caressingly  about  his  neck  and  face,  and 
when  tired  retire  to  sleep  in  his  bosom. 

Carver,  in  his  travels,  relates  an  instance  of 
docility,  which,  if  true,  surpasses  any  story  of  the 
kind  I  ever  heard. 

An  Indian  belonging  to  the  Menomonie,  having 
taken  a  rattlesnake,  found  means  to  tame  it  ;  and 
when  he  had  done  this  treated  it  as  a  deity,  calling 
it  his  great  father,  and  carrying  it  with  him  in  a 
box  wherever  he  went.  This  he  had  done  for 
several  summers,  when  Mons.  Pinnisance  acci- 
dentally met  with  him  at  this  carrying  place,  just 
as  he  was  setting  off  for  a  winter's  hunt.  The 
French  gentleman  was  surprised  one  day  to  see  the 
Indian  place  the  box  which  contained  his  god  on 
the  ground,  and  opening  the  door  give  him  his 
liberty  ;  telling  him,  whilst  he  did  it,  to  be  sure 
and  return  by  the  time  he  himself  should  come 
back,  which  was  to  be  in  the  month  of  May  follow- 
ing. As  this  was  but  October,  monsieur  told  the 
Indian,  whose  simplicity  astonished  him,  that  he 
fancied  he  might  wait  long  enough,  when  May 
arrived,  for  the  arrival  of  his  great  father.  The 
Indian  was  so  confident  of  his  creature's  obedience, 
that  he  offered  to  lay  the  Frenchman  a  wager  of 
two  gallons  of  rum,  that  at  the  time  appointed  he 
would  come  and  crawl  into  his  box.  This  was 
agreed  on,  and  the  second  week  in  May  following 
fixed  for  the  determination  of  the  wager.  At  that 
period  they  both  met  there  again,  when  the  Indian 
set  down  his  box  and  called  for  his  great  father. 
The  snake  heard  him  not ;  and  the  time  being  now 
expired,  he  acknowledged  that  he  had  lost.  How- 
ever, without  seeming  to  be  discouraged,  he  offered 
to  double  the  bet  if  his  father  came  not  within  two 
days  more.  This  was  further  agreed  on  ;  when, 
behold,  on  the  second  day,  about  one  o'clock,  the 
snake  arrived,  and  of  his  own  accord  crawled  into 
the  box,  which  was  placed  ready  for  him.  The 
French  gentleman  vouched  for  the  truth  of  this 
story,  and,  from  the  accounts  I  have  often  received 
of  the  docility  of  those  creatures,  I  see  no  reason  to 
doubt  its  veracity. 

Southey  has  taken  advantage  of  this  docility, 
when  he  brings  before  us  the  diabolical  arch- 
priest,  and  his  monstrous  god  , 

The  general  grave 

Was  delved  within  a  deep  and  shady  dell, 
Fronting  a  cavern  in  the  rock,  ...  the  scene 
Of  many  a  bloody  rite,  ere  Madoc  came.  .  . 
A  temple  as  they  deemed  by  Nature  made, 
Where  the  snake-idol  stood. 

Suddenly  Neolin 

Sprung  up  aloft,  and  shrieked,  as  one  who  treads 
Upon  a  viper  in  his  heedless  path, 
The  God  !  the  very  God  !  he  cried,  and  howled 
One  long,  shrill,  piercing  modulated  cry, 
Whereat  from  that  dark  temple  issued  forth 
A  serpent  huge  and  hideous.     On  he  came 
Straight  to  the  sound,  and  curled  around  the  priest 
His  mighty  folds  innocuous,  overtopping 
His  human  height,  and  arching  down  his  head, 
Sought  in  the  hands  of  Neolin  for  food  ; 
Then  questing,  reared  and  stretched  and  waved  his 

neck, 

And  glanced  his  forky  tongue.     Who  then  had  seen 
The  man,  with  what  triumphant  fearlessness, 
Arms,  thighs,  and    neck,  and  body  wreathed    and 

ringed 

In  those  tremendous  folds,  he  stood  secure, 
Played  with  the  reptile's  jaws,  and  called  for  food, 
Food  for  the  present  God !  .  .  who  then  had  seen 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF    A   NATURALIST. 


121 


The  fiendish  joy,  which  fired  his  countenance, 
Might  well  have  weened  that  he  had  summoned  up 
The  dreadful  monster  from  its  native  hell 
By  devilish  power,  himself  a  fiend  infleshed. 

Making  every  allowance  for  the  exaggerations 
of  the  Spaniards,  idolatry  in  general  and  snake- 
\  worship  in  particular  must  have  been  manifested 
in  the  country  of  Neolin  in  all  its  hideousness. 

Bernal  Diaz*  declares  that 

The  head  of  a  sacrificed  person  was  strung  up  ; 
the  limbs  eaten  at  the  feast ;  the  body  given  to  the 
wild  beasts  which  were  kept  within  the  temple  cir- 
cuits ;  moreover,  in  that  accursed  house  they  kept 
vipers  and  venomous  snakes  who  had  something  at 
their  tails  which  sounded  like  morris-bells,  and 
they  are  the  worst  of  all  vipers  ;  these  were  kept 
in  cradles,  and  barrels,  and  earthen  vessels,  upon 
feathers,  and  there  they  laid  their  eggs,  and 
nursed  up  their  snakelings,  and  they  were  fed  with 
the  bodies  of  the  sacrificed,  and  with  dog's  flesh. 
We  learnt  for  certain,  that,  after  they  had  driven 
us  from  Mexico,  and  slain  above  850  of  our  soldiers 
and  of  the  men  of  Narvaez,  these  beasts  and  snakes, 
who  had  been  offered  to  their  cruel  idol  to  be  in 
his  company,  were  supported  upon  their  flesh  for 
many  days.  When  these  lions  and  tygers  roared, 
and  the  jackals  and  foxes  howled,  and  the  snakes 
hissed,  it  was  a  grim  thing  to  hear  them,  and  it 
seemed  like  hell. 

"  Mexico,"  says  Mr.  Bullock,  "still  possesses 
many  objects  of  study  for  the  antiquarian  ;"  and 
he  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  sculptured  idols  are  to  be 
found  in  various  parts  of  the  city.  The  corner- 
stone of  the  building  occupied  by  the  lottery-office 
when  he  was  there,  and  fronting  the  market  for 
shoes,  was  the  head  of  the  serpent-idol,  of  great 
magnitude  ;  in  his  judgment  it  was  not  less  than 
seventy  feet  in  length  when  entire.  Under  the 
gateway  of  the  house,  nearly  opposite  the  entrance 
to  the  mint,  was  a  fine  statue  of  a  deity,  having  the 
human  form  in  a  recumbent  posture,  about  the 
size  of  life.  This  was  found  in  digging  a  well. 
The  house  at  the  corner  of  a  street,  at  the  south- 
east side  of  the  great  square,  was  built  upon,  and 
in  part  supported  by,  a  fine  circular  altar  of  black 
basalt,  ornamented  with  the  tail  and  claws  of  a 
gigantic  reptile.  In  the  cloisters  behind  the 
Dominican  convent  was  a  noble  specimen  of  the 
great  serpent-idol,  almost  perfect  and  of  fine  work- 
manship, represented  in  the  act  of  swallowing  a 
human  victim,  which  is  crushed  and  struggling  in 
its  horrid  jaws. 

The  sacrificial  stone,  or  altar,  is  buried  in  the 
square  of  the  cathedral,  within  a  hundred  yards  of 
the  calendar  stone. f  The  upper  surface  only  is 
exposed  to  view,  which  seems  to  have  been  done 
designedly,  to  impress  upon  the  populace  an 
abhorrence  of  the  horrible  and  sanguinary  rites 
that  had  once  been  performed  on  this  very  altar. 
It  is  said  by  writers  that  30,000  human  victims 
were  sacrificed  at  the  coronation  of  Montezuma. 
Kirwan,  in  the  preface  to  his  metaphysics,  states 
the  annual  number  of  human  victims  immolated  in 
Mexico  to  be  25,000.  I  have  seen  the  Indians 
themselves  throw  stones  at  it ;  and  I  once  saw  a 

*  Bernard  Diaz  del  Castillo. 

t  Popularly  called  Montezuma's  watch. 


boy  jump  upon  it,  clench  his  fist,  stamp  with  his 
foot,  and  use  other  gesticulations  of  the  greatest 
abhorrence.  As  I  had  been  informed  that  the* 
sides  were  covered  with  historical  sculpture,  J 
applied  to  the  clergy  for  the  further  permission  of 
having  the  earth  removed  from  around  it,  which 
they  not  only  granted,  but,  moreover,  had  it  per 
formed  at  their  own  expense.  I  took  casts  of  the 
whole.  It  is  twenty-five  feet  in  circumference,  and 
consists  of  fifteen  various  groups  of  figures,  repre- 
senting the  conquests  of  the  warriors  of  Mexico 
over  different  cities,  the  names  of  which  are  written 
over  them. 

But  the  largest  and  most  celebrated  of  the 
Mexican  deities  was  known  to  be  buried  under  the 
gallery  of  the  university.  It  was  liberally  dis- 
interred at  the  expense  of  the  University  in  a  few 
hours ;  and  Mr.  Bullock  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  the  resurrection  of  this  horrible  deity, 
before  whom  tens  of  thousands  of  human  victims 
had  been  sacrificed. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  (observes  our  author)  for 
the  most  ingenious  artist  to  have  conceived  a  statue 
better  adapted  to  the  intended  purpose ;  and  the 
united  talents  and  imagination  of  Brughel  and 
Fuseli  would  in  vain  have  attempted  to  improve  it. 

The  idol  was  hewn  out  of  one  solid  block  of 
basalt,  nine  feet  high,  its  outlines  giving  an  idea 
of  a  deformed  human  figure,  uniting  all  that  is 
horrible  in  the  tiger  and  rattle-snake. 

Instead  of  arms  it  is  supplied  with  two  large 
serpents,  and  its  drapery  is  composed  of  wreathed 
snakes,  interwoven  in  the  most  disgusting  manner, 
and  the  sides  terminating  in  the  wings  of  a  vulture. 
Its  feet  are  those  of  the  tiger,  with  claws  extended 
in  the  act  of  seizing  its  prey,  and  between  them 
lies  the  head  of  another  rattle-snake,  which  seems 
descending  from  the  body  of  the  idol.  Its  decora- 
tions accord  with  its  horrid  form,  having  a  large 
necklace  composed  of  human  hearts,  hands,  and 
skulls,  and  fastened  together  by  the  entrails.  It 
has  evidently  been  painted  in  natural  colors,  which 
must  have  added  greatly  to  the  terrible  effect  it  was 
intended  to  inspire  in  its  votaries. 

If  that  grim  stone  could  have  spoken,  what 
agonizing  scenes  it  might  have  described  ! 

The  heart  still  panting  was  taken  by  the  priest 
from  the  breast,  and  deemed  the  more  acceptable  to 
the  deity  if  it  smoked  with  life ;  and  the  mangled 
limbs  of  the  victim  were  then  divided  amongst  the 
crowd  as  a  feast  worthy  of  the  goddess.  In  the 
night  of  desolation,  called  by  the  Spaniards  Noche 
Triste,  in  which  -many  were  made  prisoners  by  the 
Mexicans,  the  adventurous  Cortez,  and  his  few 
remaining  companions  in  arms,  were  horror-stricken 
by  witnessing  the  cruel  manner  in  which  their  cap- 
tive fellow-adventurers  were  dragged  to  the  sacrifi- 
cial stone,  and  their  hearts,  yet  warm  with  vitality, 
presented  by  the  priests  to  the  gods  ;  and  the  more 
the  separated  seat  of  life  teemed  with  animation, 
the  more  welcome  was  the  offering  to  the  goddess 
— the  more  heart-rending  the  cries  of  the  victims, 
the  more  grateful  the  sacrifice  to  this  monster 
representative  of  deformity  and  carnage.* 

*  Six  Months  in  Mexico.  Those  who  saw,  as  I  did, 
the  cast  of  this  infernal  deity,  in  Mr.  Bullock's  Ex- 
hibition in  1824,  will  acknowledge  that  his  description 
is  not  overcharged. 


122 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A   NATURALIST. 


PART    XIV. 


EVENTS  come  round  in  cycles.  In  1750,  the 
winter  was  as  mild  as  that  which  has  just  passed, 
and  the  spring  very  early.  In  Sweden,  the 
"  steel  nights,"  which  are  generally  felt  in  all 
their  rigor  somewhere  about  the  last  week  in 
February,  were  so  entirely  absent,  that  lands 
were  sown  in  Upland  in  that  week ;  the  usual 
time  for  sowing  in  Sweden  seldom  arriving  before 
April.  Harald  Barck,  who  records  this  unusual 
mildness  and  its  consequences,  adds,  that  he  is  not 
ignorant  that  the  lands  in  some  of  the  northern 
provinces,  especially  those  which  abound  in  clay, 
require  early  sowing,  that  the  ground  may  be 
broken  with  less  trouble,  and  that  the  first  shoots 
of  .the  barley  may  make  their  way  through  it 
before  it  grows  stiff.  He  adds,  that  the  people 
of  Schonen,  and  others  that  dwell  near  the  sea, 
sow  late,  whether  the  spring  be  early  or  not ;  and 
that  sometimes  to  their  great  loss,  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  they  received  this  custom  from 
their  ancestors.  The  most  northern  inhabitants 
of  Sweden  find  it  necessary  to  sow  as  soon  as  the 
frost  breaks  up,  that  the  short  summer  may  per- 
fectly ripen  the  grain  before  the  winter  approaches. 
For  as  eggs  require  a  fixed  time  for  the  exclusion 
of  the  young,  so  the  barley  does  in  different 
provinces  to  ripen  the  seed.*  Harald  then  gives 
a  table  of  the  times  of  sowing  in  different  local- 
ities, in  different  years,  the  latest  time  being  the 
18th  of  June,  and  the  earliest  the  16th  of  April. 
He  concludes,  from  these  observations,  that  the 
sowing  of  barley  nearly  coincides  with  the  folia- 
tion of  the  birch,  at  least  in  Upland,  and  other 
places  adjacent.  He  remarks,  that  it  is  a  popular 
error,  that  less  time  passes  between  the  sowing 
and  ripening  of  wheat  in  their  northern  provinces 
than  at  Upsal,  and  that  this  happens,  because  the 
summer  days  are  longer  in  the  north,  and  there  is 
scarcely  any  night  to  retard  its  growth.  But  this 
error  is  made  evident  by  the  grain  ripening  in  as 
short  a  time  in  Schonen  as  in  Lapland  ;  for  bar- 
ley, in  the  champaign  part  of  Schonen,  is  sown 
about  the  29th  of  May,  and  reaped  sooner  than  in 
Upland.  But  why  barley  ripens  later  in  Upland 
and  Wessmania,  than  in  the  other  provinces  of 
Sweden,  he  confesses  to  be  an  absolute  secret  to 
him.f 

With  us,  though  Aquarius  has  been  predomi- 
nant, there  has  been  hardly  any  freezing — none  of 
any  consequence — though  as  late  as  the  12th  of 
February,  I  saw  ice  on  the  water  in  St.  James' 
Park,  as  if  Jack  Frost  was  determined  to  show 
that  his  power  was  not  utterly  extinct.  But  the 
yellow  aconite  and  primroses  were  in  bloom  early 
in  January ;  and  on  the  10th  of  that  month, 
baskets  full  of  them  were  exposed  for  sale  in 
Covent  Garden  Market.  On  the  12th  the  posies 
of  wall-flowers,  polyanthuses,  and  garden  anemo- 
nes, were  hawked  about  the  streets ;  and  on  the 
19th,  wall-flowers,  with  some  of  the  blossoms  ex- 


*  Amaen.  Acad. 


t  Ibid. 


panded,  which  had  been  dug  up  for  planting  in 
the  suburbs,  and  in  the  broken  pan  of  the  artisan, 
to  remind  him  that  there  is  such  a  place  as  the 
country,  which  he  is  beginning  to  forget,  were 
pitched  there  in  full  panniers.  On  the  llth  and 
12th  of  February,  crocuses  were  to  be  seen 
expanding  their  golden  chalices  in  some  of  the 
miniature  London  gardens — gardens  which,  as  the 
late  Lord  Canterbury  said  of  poor  dear  Theodore 
Hook's  at  Fulham,  look  as  if  they  might  be  kept 
in  order  with  a  pair  of  scissors  and  a  toothpick  ; 
but  I  saw  those  welcome  heralds  of  spring,  decked 
with  their  glowing  tabards  as  early  as  the  2nd  of 
that  month  some  few  years  since. 

The  Frost-genius  takes  his  opportunities  of 
convincing  mortals  that  his  reign  has  not  passed 
away,  by  a  demonstration  of  more  than  ordinary 
severity,  as  he  did  in  1783-4,  when  Paris  espec- 
ially was  frozen  to  her  very  marrow,  and  the 
greatest  distress  prevailed  ;  nor  did  the  thaw  per- 
manently tafce  place  till  late  in  February.  Louis 
XVI.  and  Marie  Antoinette  put  forth  all  their 
benevolent  powers  to  relieve  the  pinching  misery 
of  that  icy  grasp,  and  the  blessings  of  the  people 
were  inscribed  on  obelisks  of  snow  as  durable  as 
their  gratitude. 

19th  January. — A  genial  afternoon,  with  a  good 
spice  of  an  old  May  day  in  it,  led  me  to  the 
Zoological  Gardens,  where  a  Tapir  was  lounging 
about  in  the  open  air,  as  comfortable  apparently  as 
if  it  had  been  in  South  America.  Hippo  very 
much  grown,  and  thriving  admirably.  His  food 
still  oatmeal  and  milk,  and  it  must  be  told — as  the 
well-bred  Hamet  informed  me  in  a  whisper — 
"  Many  horse-dung  ;"  of  which  latter  condiment 
he  consumes  a  great  deal,  and  has  long  done  so. 
This  reminded  me  of  a  passage  in  Sparrman,  in 
which  he  anticipates  the  possibility  of  bringing 
one  of  these  animals  to  Europe.  Speaking  of  the 
sucking  hippopotamus  which  he  captured  and  dis- 
sected, the  Swedish  doctor  says,  "  I  am  apt  to  sup- 
pose that  one  a  little  older  than  this  would  not  be 
very  nice  in  its  food ;  as  that  which  we  caught 
was  induced  by  hunger,  as  soon  as  it  was  let  loose 
near  the  wagon,  to  put  up  with  something  not 
extremely  delicate,  which  had  been  just  dropped 
from  one  of  our  oxen." 

It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  the  animal  took 
this,  not  from  pressure  of  hunger,  but  as  a  cor- 
rective to  the  milk,  the  curd  of  which  was  found 
in  its  stomach  ;  and  it  is  possible,  that  the  suck- 
ing hippopotamus,  in  a  state  of  nature,  may  have 
recourse  to  the  droppings  of  the  parent  for  that 
purpose.  This  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to 
Sparrman,  who,  after  relating  his  anecdote, 
observes,  that  this  may  appear  very  extraordinary 
in  an  animal  with  four  stomachs  ;  but  there  have 
been  instances  of  this  kind  known  in  common  cat- 
tle, which  in  Herjedal,  are  partly  fed  with  horse- 
dung.  He  states,  that  he  has  been  assured,  that 
this  method  of  feeding  cattle  has  been  practised 
with  great  advantage  in  Upland  when  there  has 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


123 


been  a  scarcity  of  fodder ;  and  that  afterwards, 
these  same  cattle,  even  when  they  have  not  been 
in  want  of  proper  fodder,  have  taken  to  this  food 
of  their  own  accord,  and  have  eaten  it  without 
anything  else  being  mixed  with  it. 

The  regimen  has  agreed  with  our  Hippo 
wonderfully.  No  animal  could  be  in  better 
health.  He  was  thoroughly  enjoying  existence 
in  his  bath,  wherein  he  spends  more  time  as  he 
.grows  older.  The  teeth  are  just  come  through, 
and  he  seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  champing  Pro- 
fessor Owen's  stick  when  held  near  its  mouth,  as 
a  child  would  use  a  coral.  When  he  rises  after 
his  submersion,  he  shakes  the  water  from  his  ears 
with  a  brisk  motion  ;  this  he  invariably  does  when 
he  emerges.  The  overlapping  of  the  huge  upper 
lip  stands  him  in  good  stead  when  he  wishes  to 
expel  the  water  from  his  mouth.  He  drives  it 
backwards  with  considerable  force,  and  the  water 
rushes  from  under  the  overlap,  as  if  from  a 
gigantic  pair  of  gills.  When  in  its  natural  state, 
the  animal  feeds  upon  water-plants,  scooped  up  by 
its  enormous  teeth,  these  sluices  must  be  very 
convenient  for  getting  rid  of  the  mud  and  water. 

The  great  tortoise  had  buried  its  head  in  the 
sand  in  the  Ostrich-house  up  to  the  shoulders  ;  but 
the  greater  portion  of  the  shell  and  the  lower 
extremities  were  exposed.  I  hope  it  may  be 
alive,  but  I  have  my  misgivings.  Not  one  of  the 
large  tortoises  that  I  recollect  has  survived.  Yet 
White's  old  tortoise  retired  annually  under  his 
bunch  of  hepaticas,  and  lay  sliug  in  the  ground, 
open  to  every  skyey  influence,  till  rejoicing  nature 
bade  winter  farewell.  A  smaller  one  rested  its 
head  upon  the  sand,  but  had  not  buried  itself  at 
all. 

I  suspect  that  we  do  not  know  how  to  manage 
these  creatures,  which  perish  in  consequence  of 
the  artificial  life  they  lead.  The  hybernation  is 
incomplete — and  this  intermediate  state,  this  life 
in  death,  neither  one  thing  nor  the  other.  The 
animal  consequently  loses  its  balance  and  dies  ! 

So !  The  Polar  Bear  has  escaped  a  vinculo 
matrimonii,  and  remains  in  his  bachelor's  den  on 
a  separate  maintenance.  I  thought  how  it  would 
be.  They  led  a  regular  cat  and  dog  life  ;  she 
growling  and  snapping  whenever  he  came  near 
her,  and  he  looking  and  acting  like  a  thorough 
Jerry  Sneak,  and  giving  unmistakable  evidence 
of  his  anxiety  to  get  out  of  such  company,  by 
rearing  himself  up  against  the  walls  of  his  prison, 
and  examining  every  part  of  it — not  without  effect. 
For,  some  days  since,  he  scaled  the  smooth  wall 
of  the  yard,  and,  notwithstanding  the  inverted 
cheval-de-frise  with  which  it  was  fortified,  got 
clear  of  his  prison  and  his  termagant  wife  at  once. 
He  was  discovered,  early  one  morning,  near  the 
Dromedary-house,  by  a  blacksmith  who  had  come 
to  his  work. 

The  blacksmith  looked  at  the  white  bear,  and  the 
white  bear  looked  at  the  blacksmith,  who,  like  a 
valiant  and  wise  smith,  did  not  run,  but  stood  his 
ground  and  shouted  ;  whereupon  the  bear  retreated 
into  a  bush  of  laurel.  Presently  the  bear  put 


forth  his  nose,  as  if  meditating  an  advance,  when 
the  smith  shouted  again,  and  the  bear  again  drew 
back.  This  amcebaean  scene  continued  till  the 
shouts  of  the  man  collected  some  of  the  keepers, 
who  instantly  took  measures  for  his  recapture. 
He  walked  off,  got  upon  the  shed  at  the  end  of 
the  new  aviary,  and  descended  thence  into  the 
paddock.  Hereabouts,  Cocksedge,  who  some 
years  back  boldly  marched  up  to  a  crouching  lion, 
of  which  he  had  the  care,  but  which  had  escaped 
from  the  old  temporary  Carnivora-house  near  the 
spot  where  the  Dromedary-house  now  stands,  and 
was  ogling  some  antelopes  and  deer  in  the  adjoin- 
ing close  with  no  amorous  intentions,  came  up 
with  the  bear.  Him  he  treated  differently  from 
the  lion,  whom  he  seized  by  the  mane,  and  led 
back  to  his  den  ;  but  the  bear  having  no  mane, 
Cocksedge  tackled  "  The  Polar,"  as  he  is  called 
in  some  of  the  Fair  bills,  in  a  different  way.  The 
brave  keeper  advanced  with  a  strong  rope,  which 
had  a  running  noose,  and  threw  it  over  the 
monster's  neck ;  and  then  he  pulled,  and  the  bear 
pulled,  till  the  rope  broke.  Bruin  quietly  lifted 
his  arm,  and,  with  his  fore-paw,  disembarrassed 
himself  of  the  noose.  Cocksedge,  nothing  daunted, 
caught  him  with  another  rope,  and  a  struggle 
ensued,  the  infuriated  beast  biting  the  rope  till  he 
got  free,  and  walking  on,  followed  by  a  detachment 
of  keepers,  who  managed,  by  heading  him  at 
proper  intervals,  and  showing  a  bold  front,  to  keep 
him  out  of  the  park.  While  they  were  trying  to 
prevent  this,  he  made  a  desperate,  but,  luckily, 
ineffectual  rush  at  one  of  the  men.  At  last,  by 
dint  of  marches  and  counter-marches,  they  so 
managed  their  tactics,  that  they  drove  him  gradu- 
ally up  to  the  door  of  a  den  which  stood  invitingly 
open,  and  in  he  went,  and  was  secured ;  not, 
however,  without  dashing  with  all  his  weight  and 
strength  at  the  gate  of  his  new  prison.  This 
escape  led  to  an  immediate  order  for  caging  the 
whole  of  the  white-bear  yard  overhead  with  iron, 
where  Bruin  is  again  domiciled  with  his  partner, 
a  reconciliation  having  taken  place  ;  and,  now, 
with  the  exception  of  an  occasional  squabble,  not 
uncommon  in  such  cases,  they  get  on  very  well 
together. 

But  we  must  return  to  the  reptile-house,  and, 
like  the  witch  of  Ben-y-gloe,  finish  our  snakes.* 

And  here  I  would  venture  to  suggest  an  im- 

*  Those  who  have  not  had  the  pleasure  of  reading 
Mr.  Scrope's  stirring  book  on  Deer-stalking  had  bet- 
ter possess  themselves  of  it  at  once  ;  and  there  they 
will  find  the  witch  surrounded  by  all  the  horrors  in 
which  M.  G.  Lewis,  that  "jewel  of  a  man,"  as  Byron 
called  him,  could  envelop  her.  Here  is  a  morsel  or 
two  by  way  of  a  whet : — 

She  heard  him  on  her  mount  of  stone, 
Where,  on  snakes  alive,  she  was  feeding  alone; 
And  straight  her  limbs  she  anointed  all 
With  basilisk's  blood,  and  viper's  gall. 

But  seeing,  before  away  she  sped, 
That  her  snakes,  half-eaten,  were  not  yet  dead, 
She  crushed  their  heads  with  fiendish  spite, 
But  had  not  the  mercy  to  kill  them  quite. 

Now,  if  lords  and  ladies  are  curious  to  know 
What  became  of  the  witch  when  she  left  Ben-y-gloe, 
'T  is  right  to  inform  them,  for  fear  of  mistakes, 
That  home  she  went,  and  finished  her  snakes. 


124 


LEAVES    FROM   THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF    A   NATURALIST. 


provement  in  the  ordering  and  keeping  the  reptiles, 
which  must  materially  affect  the  comfort  and  health 
of  the  fine  specimens  which  are  there  preserved. 
Generally  speaking,  reptiles,  snakes  especially, 
are  very  fond  of  water,  not  merely  for  the  purpose 
of  drinking,  but  of  taking  a  bath.  Most  of  the 
boas  and  pythons,  of  which  there  is  such  a  fine 
show,  haunt  the  neighborhood  of  waters  in  their 
natural  state  ;  and  in  the  summer  months,  the 
serpents  in  the  reptile-house  may  be  observed 
availing  themselves  of  the  scanty  accommodations 
afforded  them.  On  the  28th  of  July,  in  the  last 
year,  there  was  not  a  single  serpent,  with  the 
exception  of  what  may  be  termed  the  more  arid 
species,  that  was  not  making  the  most  of  the 
milk-pans  of  water,  that  did  duty  for  baths.  It 
was  at  once  ludicrous  and  painful  to  see  the  efforts 
of  the  more  gigantic  snakes  to  cool  their  heated 
systems  in  an  allowance  of  fresh  water,  which 
would  be  considered  stinted  in  a  long  voyage. 
The  rock-snake  could  do  no  more  than  get  its 
head,  and  no  great  part  of  its  neck,  into  its  pan, 
and  there  the  head  lay  motionless,  except  when  it 
was,  ever  and  anon,  plunged  under  the  surface, 
the  brandished  bifid  tongue  proclaiming  the  relish 
with  which  the  fevered  animal,  enclosed  in  glass, 
enjoyed  the  limited  relief.  Think  what  a  mag- 
nificent sight  it  would  be  to  see  the  Oular  Sawa,* 
and  the  grand  Python  Sebae,  disporting  in  a  well- 
filled  bath  of  adequate  dimensions.  The  pans  do 
tolerably  well  for  the  smaller  serpents,  which  show 
the  gratification  that  they  feel  by  coiling  them- 
selves up  in  them  with  nothing  but  their  head 
out.  One  of  these  was  thus  coolly  reposing  while 
a  little  fish,  destined  for  its  maw,  was  quietly 
swimming  about  in  the  pan,  utterly  unconscious 
of  the  deadly  vicinage.  But  any  one  who  has 
observed  the  graceful  sinuosities  of  our  pretty 
ringed  snake,f  in  crossing  a  pond,  must  feel  how 
much  is  lost  by  depriving  the  spectator  of  a  satis- 
factory view  of  the  animal  while  obeying  its 
natural  instincts,  to  the  gratification  of  both. 
These  snakes  will  take  fish  as  well  as  frogs,  but 
rarely,  and  then  most  probably  in  consequence  of 
a  scarcity  of  their  ordinary  batrachian  diet.  The 
snake  generally  takes  the  frog  behind,  as  the  lat- 
ter is  fleeing  from  its  deadly  enemy ;  and,  in  such 
cases,  the  frog  is  swallowed  rump  foremost,  the 
hinder  legs  being  protruded  forwards  and  sticking 
out  in  a  sort  of  amorphous  bunch  with  the  head, 
as  the  unhappy  frog  is  gradually  swallowed  alive. 
It  is  very  distressing  to  witness  this  operation, 
rendered  more  painful  by  the  shrill  cries  of  the 
frog  ;  and  I  have  more  than  once  liberated  the 
agonized  patient,  while  fishing,  by  striking  the 
serpent's  head  and  neck  with  the  point  of  my  rod 
— a  piece  of  humanity  somewhat  questionable, 
especially  as  I  do  not  remember  that  I  left  off 
pulling  out  the  trouts  upon  such  occasions ;  but 
then  they  did  not  cry.  The  process  of  deglutition 
is  horrible  to  behold,  and  the  martyred  frog  de- 
scends into  its  living  sepulchre  a  living  thing. 

*  Python  reticulatus.         f  Natru  torquata. 


Mr.  Bell  saw  a  little  one,  which  had  been  swal- 
lowed by  a  very  large  snake,  leap  out  of  the 
mouth  of  the  latter,  taking  advantage  of  an 
unlucky  gape  of  the  snake  after  the  operation  was 
over — an  action  which  is  not  uncommon  with 
serpents  immediately  after  they  have  swallowed 
their  prey  ;  and  he  heard,  on  another  occasion,  a 
frog  distinctly  utter  its  peculiar  cry  several  min- 
utes after  it  had  been  swallowed  by  the  snake ; 
this  I  can  confirm.  Sometimes  two  snakes  seize 
upon  one  luckless  frog  at  the  same  time — a  joint 
seizure,  which  is  not  very  likely  to  happen  when 
the  animals  are  at  liberty,  and  in  their  natural 
state,  but  which  passed  under  the  eyes  of  Mr. 
Bell,  the  litigant  parties  being  in  imprison- 
ment. 

He  tells  us  that,  on  placing  a  frog  in  a  large 
box,  in  which  were  several  snakes,  one  of  the 
latter  instantly  seized  it  by  one  of  the  hinder  legs ; 
and,  immediately  afterwards,  another  of  the  snakes 
took  forcible  possession  of  the  fore  legs  of  the 
opposite  side.  Each  continued  its  inroads  upon 
the  poor  frog's  limbs  and  body,  till  the  upper 
jaws  of  the  snakes  met,  atid  one  of  them  slightly 
bit  the  jaw  of  the  other  ;  this  was  immediately 
retaliated,  Mr.  Bell  thinks  without  any  hostile 
feeling,  quaere  tamen,  as  the  lawyers  say ;  for, 
after  one  or  two  such  accidents,  the  strongest  of 
the  snakes  commenced  shaking  the  other,  which 
still  kept  its  hold  of  the  frog,  with  great  violence, 
from  side  to  side,  against  the  sides  of  the  box. 
Then  the  combatants  rested  for  a  few  moments, 
when  the  other  returned  to  the  attack ;  and  at 
length  the  one  which  had  last  seized  the  frog, 
having  a  less  firm  hold,  was  shaken  off,  and  the 
conqueror  swallowed  the  prey.  Mr.  Bell,  who 
did  not  throw  his  warder  down  during  this  gentle 
passage  of  arms,  then  put  another  frog  into  the 
box,  which  was  at  once  seized  and  swallowed  by 
the  unsuccessful  combatant.* 

My  observations  agree  with  those  of  Mr.  Bell 
in  cases  where  the  snake  seizes  the  frog  by  the 
middle  of  the  body.  The  serpent  then  turns  the 
frog,  and  swallows  it  head  foremost,  as  the  great 
constricting  serpents  do  by  their  prey  when  they 
have  killed  and  crushed  it  by  the  pressure  of  their 
enormous  folds.  It  is  curious  to  observe  the 
adaptation  of  power  by  these  constrictors.  When 
a  comparatively  small  boa,  or  python,  seizes  a 
rabbit,  it  becomes  a  congeries  of  coils  around  the 
victim  ;  a  large  one  applies  one  fold  just  sufficient 
to  kill  without  the  useless  application  of  further 
muscular  pressure.  In  taking  lizards  and  birds,  / 
the  common  snake  swallows  the  prey  head  fore- 
most, for  the  obvious  reason  of  security  ;  such,  at 
least,  is  the  result  of  my  observation,  as  well  as 
that  of  Mr.  Bell,  who  kept  a  number  of  these  ser- 
pents, one  of  which  was  an  especial  pet,  and  dis- 
tinguished its  master  from  all  other  persons. 
When  let  out  of  its  box  it  would  immediately  go 
to  him,  and  creep  under  the  sleeve  of  his  coat, 
where  it  would  lie  revelling  in  the  warmth. 

*  British  reptiles. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


125 


Every  morning,  at  breakfast,  it  came  to  his  hand 
for  its  allowance  of  milk  ;  but  it  fled  from  stran- 
gers, and  hissed  if  they  meddled  with  it. 

By  the  way,  Major  Denham,  in  his  African 
Travels,  mentions  an  instance  of  the  supposed  vir- 
tues of  the  fat  of  serpents,  when  applied  to  beasts. 
Near  Lari,  he  and  his  party  killed  an  enormous 
snake,  which  he  calls  a  species  of  coluber — a 
python,  probably — measuring  eighteen  feet  from 
the  mouth  to  the  tail.  Five  balls  entered  the  ser- 
pent, but  it  was  still  moving  off,  when  two  Arabs, 
each  armed  with  a  sword,  nearly  severed  the  head 
from  the  body.  On  opening  the  reptile,  several 
pounds  of  fat  were  found,  and  carefully  taken  off 
by  the  two  native  guides.  They  pronounced  it 
to  be  a  sovereign  and  much-prized  remedy  for 
diseased  cattle. 

As  I  looked  at  the  collection  of  venomous  ser- 
pents, the  least  of  which  carried  death  under  its 
lips,  the  out-of-the-way  remedies  which  the  savage 
and  the  half-civilized  man  successfully  uses,  came 
into  my  mind.  Their  cures,  if  we  may  believe 
honest  witnesses,  are  far  more  frequent  than  those 
effected  by  European  science. 

Labat,  when  in  the  West  Indies,  was  called  to 
confess  a  young  negro,  who  had  been  bitten  by  a 
serpent  seven  feet  long,  and  as  big  as  a  man's  leg, 
three  fingers'  breadth  above  the  ankle.  The  ser- 
pent had  been  killed,  under  the  idea  that  when 
it  was  dead  the  poison,  by  some  sympathetic  law, 
would  act  with  less  force.  The  patient  was  lying 
on  a  plunk  in  the  middle  of  his  hut,  between  two 
fires,  covered  with  blankets,  and  yet  he  said  he 
was  dying  with  cold,  at  the  same  time  constantly 
crying  for  drink  to  assuage  a  devouring  internal 
heat.  He  had  also  a  prodigious  desire  to  sleep. 
His  leg  was  very  strongly  tied  below  and  above 
his  knee  with  a  species  of  ozier,  and  both  foot  and 
leg  were  horribly  swollen,  and  so  was  the  knee, 
notwithstanding  the  ligatures.  The  worthy  father 
confessed  him,  but  was  obliged  to  hold  his  hand, 
and  keep  moving  it,  to  prevent  him  from  sleeping 
during  the  ceremony.  He  afterwards  recovered. 
Captain  Forbes,  in  his  highly  interesting  book, 
Dahomey  and  the  Dahomans,  relates  that  the 
natives  have  an  infallible  remedy  for  the  bite  of 
the  deadly  cobra.  One  of  the  captain's  hammock- 
men  had  been  bitten  three  times,  but  his  father 
was  a  doctor.  Walking  one  day  through  some 
long  grass,  the  captain  pointed  to  the  bare  legs  of 
his  attendant,  and  hinted  at  his  danger.  "  None," 
said  he  ;  "my  father  picks  some  grass,  and  if  on 
the  same  day  the  decoction  is  applied,  the  wound 
heals  at  once." 

This  did  not  seem  strange  to  the  captain,  who 
had  seen  the  fights  between  the  cobra  and  the 
mongoose,  in  India.  He  says  that  the  cobra  has 
always  the  advantage  at  first,  and  the  mongoose, 
apparently  vanquished,  retreats  as  far  from  his 
enemy  as  possible,  but,  on  devouring  some  wild 
herb,  revives,  returns  to  the  attack,  and  conquers. 
In  short,  he  corroborates  the  accounts  given  by 
former  travellers  and  observers,  of  these  duels 
between  the  quadruped  and  the  reptile. 

9 


The  same  author  records  that,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Dahomey,  the  killing  by  accident,  or  otherwise, 
of  a  fetish  snake,  was  formerly  punished  by  death  ; 
but  that  the  penalty  is  now  mitigated  to  running 
the  gauntlet  through  the  fetish  priests,  who  be- 
labor the  criminal  without  mercy  ;  nor  is  he  free 
till  he  reaches  water,  to  wash  out  his  sin.  The 
captain  states  that  the  lions  of  Whydah  are  the 
snake  fetish  house  and  the  market.  The  former 
is  a  temple  built  round  a  huge  cotton-tree,  in 
which  are,  at  all  times,  many  snakes  of  the  boa 
species  (python).  These  are  allowed  to  roam 
about  at  pleasure  ;  but,  if  found  in  a  house,  or  at 
a  distance,  a  fetish  man  or  woman  is  sought, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  induce  the  reptile  to  return, 
and  to  reconduct  it  to  its  sacred  abode,  while  all 
that  meet  it  must  bow  down  and  kiss  the  dust. 
Morning  and  evening,  many  are  to  be  seen  pros- 
trated before  the  door,  whether  worshipping  the 
snakes  directly,  or  an  invisible  god,  which  is 
known  under  the  name  of  "  Seh,"  through  these 
representatives,  the  gallant  captain  confesses  that 
he  is  not  learned  enough  to  determine. 

The  fascination  of  serpents  has  been  stoutly 
maintained  by  some,  and  as  strongly  denied  by 
others.  Acrell  notices  this  phenomenon  as  being 
confirmed  by  the  evidence  of  several  of  his  coun- 
trymen, who  had  been  a  long  while  resident  at 
Philadelphia.  They  related  that  the  American 
rattlesnake,  which  they  described  as  the  most  in- 
dolent of  serpents,  unquestionably  possessed  this 
power.  They  declared  that,  as  the  snake  lies 
under  the  shade  of  a  tree,  opening  his  jaws  a 
little,  he  fixes  his  brightly  glittering  eyes  upon 
any  bird,  or  squirrel,  which  is  in  it.  The  squir- 
rel, so  runs  their  account,  utters  a  mournful  and* 
feeble  cry,  and,  as  if  foreseeing  his  fate,  leaps 
from  bough  to  bough  on  every  side,  seemingly  to 
attempt  a  sudden  escape  ;  but,  struck  with  the 
fascination,  he  comes  down  the  tree,  and  flings 
himself  with  a  spring  into  the  very  jaws  of  his- 
enemy.  The  observations  of  some  Englishmen, 
continues  Acrell,  seem  to  confirm  the  truth  of  this. 
They  shut  up  a  mouse  with  one  of  these  fascinat»- 
ing  rattlesnakes  in  an  iron  box  ;  the  mouse  sat.  in 
one  corner — the  rattlesnake  was  opposite  to  it.  The  • 
reptile  fixed  its  eye,  terrible  as  Vathek's,  upon 
the  little  trembler,  which  was,  at  last,  forced  to 
throw  itself  into  the  mouth  of  the  serpent.  Acrell 
adds,  that  the  same  experiment  was  repeated  in; 
Italy  with  a  pregnant  female  viper  with  the  same  • 
success.* 

A  piece  of  evidence,  apparently  unintentional, . 
occurs  in  Captain  Forbes'  book,  already  noticed  1. 
On  passing  from  the  viceroy's  house  at  Ahomey, 
(the   grass  very  high,)    he   observed,  within   an 
inch  of  his  leg,  a  small  lizard,  with  its  eyes  fixed. 
It  did  not  move  on  his  approach.     At  the   same 
moment,  a  cobra  darted  at  it,  and,  before  he  could 
raise  his  stick,  bore  it  away — "  rather  a  narrow* 
escape  from  death,"  as  the  captain   quietly  ob- 
serves.     The  captain  makes  no  comment  on  that< 

*  Am.  Acad. 


126 


LEAVES    FROM    THE   NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


part  of  the  adventure  here  printed  in  italics ;  nor 
does  it  seem  to  have  occurred  to  him  that  he  had 
under  his  eyes  a  proof  of  this  deadly  mesmerism. 
Catesby  thus  tells  the  tale  as  't  was  told  to 
him  : — 

The  charming,  as  it  is  commonly  called,  or  at- 
tractive power,  which  this  snake  (the  rattlesnake) 
is  said  to  have  of  drawing  to  it  animals,  and  de- 
vouring them,  is  generally  believed  in  America ; 
as  for  my  own  part,  I  never  saw  the  action  ;  but  a 
great  many  from  whom  I  have  had  it  related,  all 
agree  in  the  manner  of  the  process  ;  which  is,  that 
the  animals,  particularly  birds  and  squirrels,  (which 
principally  are  their  prey,)  no  sooner  spy  the  snake 
than  they  skip  from  spray  to  spray,  hovering  and 
approaching  gradually  nearer  their  enemy,  regard- 
less of  any  other  danger  ;  but  with  distracted  ges- 
tures and  outcries,  descend,  though  from  the  top 
of  the  loftiest  trees,  to  the  mouth  of  the  snake,  who 
openeth  his  jaws,  takes  them  in,  and  in  an  instant 
swallows  them. 

Animals  of  greater  size,  though  they  are   not 
fascinated,  are  affected  at  the  presence  of  these 
tteptiles  by  the  most  violent  feelings    of   abhor- 
:xence. 

The  largest  I  ever  saw,  says  Catesby,  was  one 

:ibout  eight  feet  in  length,  weighing  between  eight 

and  nine  pounds.     This  monster  was  gliding  into 

-the  house  of  Colonel  Blake,  of  Carolina,  and  had 

•  certainly  taken  his  abode  there  undiscovered,  had 
not  the  domestic  animals  alarmed  the  family  with 

:  their  repeated  outcries :  the  hogs,  dogs,  and  poul- 
try united  in  their  hatred  to  him,  showing  the 
greatest  consternation  by  erecting  their  bristles  and 
;  feathers ;  and,  expressing  their  wrath  and  indig- 
nation, surrounded  him,  but  carefully  kept  their 

•  distance;    while  he,  regardless  of  their  threats, 
glided  slowly  along. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  have  them  come 
into  houses;  a  very  extraordinary  instance  of 

•  which  happened  to  myself,  in  the  same  gentleman's 
i  house,  in  the  month  of  February,  1723  :  the  ser- 
'  vant,  in  making  the  bed  in  a  ground-room  (but  a 

few  minutes  after  I  left  it,)  on  turning  down  the 

•  clothes,  discovered  a  rattlesnake  lying  coiled  be- 
neath the  sheets  in  the  middle  of  the  bed.* 

Catesby '«  evidence  relative  to  the  power  of  fas- 

ccination  is  merely  hearsay,  it  may  be  said;  we 

will  therefore  call   Lawson,    an   eye-witness  : — 

They  (rattlesnakes)  have  the  power,  or  art  (I 
'•know  not  which  to  call  it)  to  charm  squirrels, 
1  hares,  partridges,  or  any  such  thing,  in  such  a  man- 
i  ner,  that  they  run  directly  into  their  mouths.  This 
I  have  sr-en  by  a  squirrel  and  one  of  those  rattle- 
;Snakes ;  and  other  snakes  have,  in  some  measure, 
;  the  same  power.f 

I  remember,  many  years  ago,  witnessing  the 
effect  produced  by  the  sight  of  a  serpent  on  the 
larger  animals.  I  was  enjoying  my  book — it  was 
3The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel — on  a  delicious 
cwarjn  spring  day,  under  one  of  the  trees  in  the 
upper  part  of  our  pretty  hanging  orchard,  then 
one  sheet  of  blossom,  when  my  attention  was  at- 


*  Carolina. 


t  History  of  Carolina,  1714. 


tracted  by  the  loud  outcries  of  several  turkeys  far 
away  towards  the  lower  part,  where  the  fruit- 
trees  ended.  On  looking  up,  I  saw  them  sur- 
rounding a  tuft  of  grass  more  than  usually  lux- 
uriant. They  craned  over  at  this  tuft,  which 
they  surrounded,  keeping  at  a  respectful  distance, 
however,  with  ruffled  plumage  and  half-expanded 
tails,  uttering  the  short,  often  repeated  cry,  pit, 
pit,  pit,  as  turkeys  do,  when  they  are  annoyed  and 
frightened.  As  I  advanced,  their  gestures  and  cries 
were  redoubled  ;  and,  upon  coming  up,  I  saw  a  very 
large  common  ringed  snake  coiled  up  in  the  tuft. 
At  my  approach,  it  started  off,  followed  by  myself 
and  the  turkeys,  they  still  crying  and  gesticulat- 
ing, but  saved  itself  in  the  hedge.  I  could  not 
help  asking  myself  whether  the  Transatlantic 
blood  in  their  veins  had  not  roused  their  latent 
instincts,  and  impressed  their  brains  with  the  no- 
tion that  they  had  come  upon  one  of  the  smaller 
rattlesnakes. 

By  the  way,  there  is  no  longer  a  shadow  of 
doubt  that  the  serpents  operated  upon  by  the  ser- 
pent-charmers at  the  Zoological  Garden  last  year, 
had  been  deprived  of  their  poison-fangs  by  mechan- 
ical means. 

Acrell,  at  the  close  of  his  statement  relative  to 
the  alleged  fascination  of  serpents,  asks — "  Do  we 
not  see,  in  the  summer,  a  parallel  instance  at 
home,  in  the  toad,  a  most  indolent  animal,  into 
whose  mouth,  as  it  lies  in  the  shade  or  under  a 
shrub,  butterflies  and  other  insects  fly?" 

Certainly  the  insects  do  fly  into  the  toad's 
mouth,  but  not,  it  may  be  suspected,  without  a 
little  help ;  and  this  reminds  me  of  the  promise 
to  give  my  readers  some  notion  of  the  mechanism 
by  which  the  tongue  of  that  reptile  acts  with  such 
marvellous  rapidity  and  certainty  in  securing  its 
prey. 

Mr.  Arscott,  of  Tehott,  Devonshire— 't  is  an 
old  tale,  but  none  the  worse  for  that — kept  a  pet 
toad,  which,  when  he  first  knew  it,  was  called  by 
his  father,  "  the*  old  toad;"  and  Mr.  Arscott, 
fils,  answers  for  a  knowledge  of  it  for  thirty-six 
years.  How  long  would  it  have  lived  ? 

Ay,  that  is  the  question,  which  a  mischievous 
devil  of  a  tame  raven — those  ravens  are  certainly 
supremely  diabolical — took  care  should  not  be 
answered  ;  for  he  dabbed  one  of  the  poor  toad's 
eyes  out  with  his  horny  beak,  after  kenning'  it,  as 
if  to  satisfy  himself,  like  one  of  Homer's  heroes, 
where  he  could  plant  his  dab  so  as  to  do  it  most 
mischief,  as  it  came  out  one  fine  evening  from  the 
hole  which  its  kind  master  had  caused  to  be  made 
for  it  under  the  third  step,  when  he  "  new-laid 
the  steps;"  and,  at  the  same  time,  otherwise  mal- 
treated the  poor  sweltering  pet.  so  that  it  was 
never  the  same  toad  again.  The  story  is  extant, 
and  written  in  choice  English,  in  the  Appendix 
to  Pennant's  British  Zoology,  to  which  the  reader 
is  referred  for  the  interesting  details,  which, 
while  they  show  that  the  kind  and  observing  nar- 
rator was  ignorant  of  some  things  that  modern 
science  has  made  manifest,  indicate  the  honest 
truth  of  his  narrative. 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


127 


Well,  it  had  frequented  the  steps  before  the 
iiall-door  some  years  before  he  became  acquainted 
with  it.  His  father,  who  admired  its  size — 
which  was  of  the  largest  the  son  ever  met  with — 
paid  it  a  visit  every  evening.  He  himself  con- 
stantly fed  it,  and  brought  it  to  be  so  tame,  that 
it  always  came  to  the  candle,  and  looked  up  as  if 
expecting  to  be  taken  up  and  brought  upon  the 
table,  where  he  always  fed  it  with  insects  of  all 
sorts.  It  was  fondest  of  flesh  magots,  which  he 
kept  in  bran.  It  would  follow  them,  and,  when 
within  a  proper  distance,  would  fix  its  eye,  and 
remain  motionless  for  near  a  quarter  of  a  minute, 
as  if  preparing  for  the  stroke,  "  which  was  an 
instantaneous  throwing  its  tongue  at  a  great  dis- 
tance upon  the  insect,  which  stuck  to  the  tip  by  a 
glutinous  matter;"  and  he  adds,  most  truly,  "  the 
motion  is  quicker  than  the  eye  can  follow." 

And  here  is  the  solution  of  the  so-called  fasci- 
nation in  which  Linnaeus  himself  believed ;  for  in 
the  Systcma  Natura  (1766)  the  reader  will  find, 
under  Rana  Bufo,  the  following  assertion  :  Insecta 
in  fauces  fascino  revocat. 

I  always  imagined — (says  that  acute  observer, 
the  younger  Mr.  Arscott) — that  the  root  of  its 
tongue  was  placed  in  the  forepart  of  its  under  jaw, 
and  the  tip  towards  its  throat,  by  which  the  motion 
must  be  a  half-circle  ;  by  which,  when  its  tongue 
recovered  its  situation,  the  insect  at  the  tip  would 
be  brought  to  the  place  of  deglutition.  I  was  con- 
firmed in  this  by  never  observing  any  internal 
motion  in  the  mouth,  excepting  one  swallow  the 
instant  its  tongue  returned.  Possibly  I  might  be 
mistaken,  for  I  never  dissected  one,  but  contented 
myself  with  opening  its  mouth  and  slightly  inspect- 
ing it. 

No,  my  good  Mr.  Arscott,  you  were  not  mis- 
taken ;  and  you  have  described  the  process  beau- 
tifully ;  but  how  is  the  action  performed? 

The  anomalous  structure  and  position  of  the 
tongue  in  most  of  the  anurous  or  tailless  batrachi- 
ans* — that  is,  tailless  in  their  last  and  most 
perfect  state — are  very  striking.  Soft  and  fleshy 
almost  throughout,  that  organ  is,  in  the  toad, 
unsupported  at  its  base  by  any  internal  bone. 
The  os  hyo'idcs  is  altogether  absent,  and  the  tongue 
is  attached  anteriorly  in  the  concavity  formed  by 
the  two  branches  of  the  lower  jaw  towards  the 
symphysis,  so  that  its  root,  instead  of  being  at  the 
back  of  the  fauces,  is  in  the  interior  edge  of  the 
fore  part  of  the  lower  jaw,  and  its  free  extremity 
is  in  the  back  part  of  the  mouth,  and  before  the 
aperture  of  the  air-passages,  when  it  is  at  rest. 
When  in  action,  it  becomes  considerably  elon- 
gated, and  is  projected  sharply  out  of  the  mouth, 
as  if  it  turned  on  a  pivot  in  the  anterior  edge  of  the 
jaw  ;  so  that,  when  thrown  out,  the  surface  which 
was  under,  when  in  repose  in  the  mouth,  comes 
uppermost ;  and,  when  returned  into  the  mouth, 
the  surface  which  an  instant  previously  was 
uppermost,  resumes  its  original  position,  and  is 
lowermost.  A  viscous  secretion,  which  is  very 

*  In  Dactylethra  the  tongue  is  attached  at  the  back  of 
the  mouth  ;  and  Pipa  has  none. 


tenacious,  completes  this  engine  of  destruction  ; 
and,  when  employed  in  the  capture  of  prey,  it 
reaches  to  a  considerable  distance,  and  returns 
with  the  insect  into  the  mouth,  where  the  morsel 
is  generally  compressed,  involved  in  a  further 
glutinous  sort  of  saliva,  and  submitted  to  the 
action  of  deglutition.  The  muscular  machinery  by 
which  this  action,  so  important  to  the  animal,  is 
effected,  is  a  beautiful  example  of  adaptation  ;  for 
the  muscles  which  regulate  the  motion  of  the 
bones  and  cartilages  of  the  mouth  act  more 
especially  upon  the  lower  jaw,  the  bone  of  the 
mandible  and  the  tongue,  which  is  by  their  power 
shot  forth  and  returned  with  the  prey  with  such 
celerity,  that,  as  has  been  before  observed,  he 
must  have  a  very  acute  and  prompt  vision  who 
can  detect  the  action.  Most  observers  will  see 
that  when  an  insect  comes  within  tongue-shot  of 
a  toad  when  upon  its  feed,  it  disappears ;  but  few 
will  detect  the  action  of  the  tongue  itself,  if  the 
reptile  be  healthy  and  lively. 

Mr.  Arscott's  old  toad  had  none  of  that  antipa- 
thy to  spiders  which  old  legends  would  have  us 
believe  existed  betwe'en  those  reptiles  and  insects  ; 
he  used  to  eat  five  or  six  with  his  millipedes, 
which  Mr.  Arscott  took  to  be  his  favorite  food, 
and  which  were  provided  for  the  pet,  till  his 
master  found  out  that  flesh  magots,  by  their  con- 
tinual motion,  formed  the  most  tempting  bait. 
When  offered  blowing  flies  and  humble-bees,  it 
would  take  them — and,  in  short,  any  insect  that 
moved  ;  and  Mr.  Arscott  imagined  that  if  a  honey 
bee  had  been  put  before  it,  it  would  have  eaten 
it,  to  its  cost.  Bees,  however,  are  seldom  stirring 
at  the  same  time  as  toads,  which  <lo  not  often 
venture  forth  after  sunrise  or  before  sunset,  though 
they  will  occasionally  come  to  the  mouth  of  their 
hole  in  the  heat  of  the  day,  probably  for  air. 
But  Mr.  Arscott  once  observed  another  large  toad, 
which  he  had  in  the  bank  of  a  bowling-green,  at 
noon,  on  a  very  hot  day,  "  very  busy  and  active 
upon  the  grass ;  so  uncommon  an  appearance," 
says  he,  "  made  me  go  out  to  see  what  it  was, 
when  I  found  an  innumerable  swarm  of  winged 
ants  had  dropped  round  his  hole,  which  tempta- 
tion was  as  irresistible  as  a  turtle  would  be  to  a 
luxurious  aJderman." 

The  pet-toad  that  lived  under  the  steps  did  not 
long  survive  the  rough  usage  of  that  malicious 
fiend,  the  raven.  It  never  enjoyed  itself,  to  use 
Mr.  Arscott's  expression,  after  the  attack,  and 
had  a  difficulty  in  taking  its  food,  missing  its 
mark  for  want  of  the  eye  of  which  the  raven  had 
deprived  it ;  and  so  it  languished,  and  languish- 
ing, did  live  for  a  twelvemonth,  when  its  life  and 
sufferings  ceased  together. 

I  have  satisfied  myself  that  there  is  hardly  any 
insect  of  proportionate  size  that  a  toad  will  not 
take  when  in  motion  ;  and  if  an  artificial  fly  were 
moved  before  it,  within  tongue  shot,  it  would 
doubtless  take  it.  Most  of  us  have  heard  of  the 
mauvaise  plaisanterie  of  throwing  small  pieces  of 
glowing  charcoal  to  the  poor  bull-frog,  which 
swallowed  them  to  its  destruction,  taking  the 


128 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


burning  coals  for  fire-flies  ;  thus  dying,  involun- 
tarily, the  death  of  Cato's  daughter. 

"  They  that  write  of  toads,"  quoth  Master 
Philemon  Holland,  in  his  translation  of  Pliny, 
"  strive  a-vie,  who  shall  write  most  wonders  of 
them ;  for  some  say,  that  if  one  of  them  be  brought 
into  a  place  of  concourse,  where  people  are  in 
great  number  assembled,  they  shall  be  all  hush, 
and  not  a  word  among  them." 

If  this  were  but  true,  what  a  blessing  an  im- 
portation of  them  would  be  into  a  certain  great 
house,  where  words  now  are  much  more  plentiful 
tban  acts. 

No  kitchen  where  the  cooks  are  too  apt  to  boil 
at  a  gallop,  instead  of  regulating  the  pot  at  that 
gentle  rate  which  alone  can  insure  the  tenderness 
of  the  joint,  should  be  without  the  following  bit 
of  the  toad's  skeleton  : — 

"  They  affirm,  also,  that  there  is  one  little  bone 
in  their  right  side,  which,  if  it  be  thrown  into  a 
pan  of  seething  water,  the  vessel  will  cool  pres- 
ently, and  boil  no  more  until  it  be  taken  forth 
again.  Now,  this  bone  (say  they)  is  found  by 
this  means  :  If  a  man  take  one  of  these  venomous 
frogs  or  toads,  and  cast  it  into  a  nest  of  ants,  for 
to  be  eaten  and  devoured  by  them,  and  look  when 
they  have  gnawed  away  the  flesh  to  the  very 
bones,  each  bone,  one  after  another,  is  to  be  put 
into  a  kettle  seething  upon  the  fire,  and  so  it  will 
soon  be  known  which  is  the  bone,  by  the  effect 
aforesaid.  There  is  another  such  like  bone  (by 
their  saying)  in  the  left  side;  cast  it  into  the 
water  that  hath  done  seething,  it  will  come  to 
boil  and  wallow  again.  This  bone  (forsooth)  is 
called  Apocyuon  ;  and  why  so?  Because  y-wis, 
there  is  not  a.  thing  more  powerful  to  appease  and 
repress  the  violence  and  furie  of  curst  dogs  than 
it." 

While  some  have  proclaimed  the  toad  as  the 
most  poisonous  of  animals,  others  have  denied  it 
any  ->oxious  qualities  whatever. 

According  to  ./Elian,  death  not  only  lurked  in 
its  breath,  but  its  very  aspect  killed,  so  that  the 
basilisk  had  in  it  a  potent  rival.  "  The  precious 
jewel  in  its  head  "  was  considered  to  be  the 
redeeming  quality  in  the  "  ugly  and  venomous  " 
creature.  This  jewel  was  not  its  brilliant  and 
beautiful  eye,  which  the  earthy  croaker  was 
said  to  have  exchanged  with  the  heavenly  lark,* 
but  a  stone  well  known  to  the  collectors  of  the 
last  century  as  the  bufonite,  toad-stone,  crapau- 
dine,  and  krottenstein,  supposed  to  be  largely 
endowed  with  medical  and  magical  powers,  and 
familiar  to  the  philosophers  of  the  present,  as  one 
of  the  fossil  palatal  teeth  of  a  fish  (pycnodus). 

The  whole  animal  was  a  repertorium  for  poi- 
soners before  the  modern  Canidias  had  hit  upon 

*  The  lore-sick  Juliet  exclaims  : — 

"  It  is  the  larke  that  sings  so  out  of  tune, 
Straining  harsh  discords  and  unpleasing  sharps. 
Some  say  the  larke  makes  sweet  division  ; 
This  doth  not  so  :  for  she  divideth  us. 
Some  say  the  larke  and  loathed  toad  change  eyes, 
0  now  I  would  they  had  changed  voices  too." 


the  powder  of  succession.  The  Roman  ladies 
who  did  not  love  their  lords,  hastened  their  de- 
parture for  the  city  of  the  dead  by  a  bufonite 
potion,*  or  an  infusion  of  rubetan  juice  in  a  cup 
of  rich  Celanian  ;f  and,  as  poisoning  and  witch- 
craft generally  went  hand  in  hand,J  there  is  no 
cause  for  surprise  that  toads  were  choice  contri- 
butions for  the  charmed  pot  of  secret,  black,  and 
midnight  hags.  "  Paddockefy  calls  "  the  witches 
in  Macbeth  ;  and  the  reptile  was  the  first  ingre- 
dient in  the  caldron  that  raised  the  blood-boller'd 
Banquo,  and  seared  the  eye-balls  of  the  murderous 
thane  with  the  regal  "  show"  of  the  disquieted 
spirit's  line. 

The  eleventh  hag  in  Jonson's  Masque  of 
Queens,  exultingly  sings — 

I  went  to  the  toad,  breeds  under  the  wall  ; 
I  charmed  him  out,  and  he  came  at  my  call. 

And  Gesner  ascribes  a  power  to  it  which  was 
believed  to  conduce  to  the  quiet  of  mankind  at  the 
expense  of  their  vigor. 

But  those  who  assert  the  bad  eminence  of  the 
toad  for  "  swelterd  venom,"  and  those  who  deny 
it  all  noxious  qualities — Pennant  was  inclined  to 
the  latter  opinion,  and  Cuvier  believed  it  to  be 
innocuous — are  both  wrong.  The  exudation  from 
the  pimples,  or  follicles,  on  the  true  skin  of  the 
toad,  especially  about  the  head  and  shoulders,  was 
proved  by  Dr.  Davy  to  be  a  very  acrid  secretion, 
resembling  the  extract  of  aconite  when  applied  to 
the  tongue,  and  even  acting  upon  the  hands. 
Pressure  causes  this  fluid  to  be  emitted,  occasion- 
ally to  some  distance,  and  the  defence  stands  the 
toad  often  in  good  stead,  especially  when  attacked 
by  dogs,  which  have  been  frequently  seen  to  drop 
the  troublesome  customer  from  their  mouths, 
with  a  shake  of  the  head  even  more  eloquent  than 
Lord  Burleigh's.  And  yet  this  secretion,  more 
acrid  than  the  poison  of  serpents,  produces  no 
effect  when  introduced  into  the  circulation.  A 
chicken  was  inoculated  with  it,  and  no  alteration 
was  perceptible  in  its  actions  or  health. 

Those  who  are  interested  in  the  marvellous 
stories  of  "  antediluvian  toads "  will  be  well 
rewarded  by  consulting  Dr.  Buckland's  paper  on 
the  subject  in  the  fifth  volume  of  the  Zoological 
Journal.  He  made  several  experiments  by  shut- 
ting them  up  in  cells,  fashioned  in  a  large  block 
of  oolitic  limestone,  and  in  another  of  compact 
siliceous  sandstone,  and  buried  the  blocks  with 
the  imprisoned  toads  three  feet  deep  in  his  garden. 
He  placed  others  each  in  a  small  basin  of  plaster 
of  Paris,  four  inches  deep  and  five  inches  in 
diameter,  and  well  luted  them  over  with  a  cover- 
ing of  the  same  material.  These  were  buried 
with  those  immured  in  the  blocks  of  stone.  He 
inclosed  some  in  three  holes  cut  for  the  purpose 
in  the  trunk  of  an  apple-tree.  Two  were  placed 

*  JUVENAL,  Sat.  vi.  558.  f  Ibid.,  Sat.  i.  69. 

\ An  malas 

Canidia  tractavit  dapes  1 — HOB.  Ep.  iii.  8. 
§  Padda  and  Tassa  are  the  names  assigned  to  the  toad 
in  the  Fauna  Suecica. 


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129 


in  one  hole  :  the  others  were  imprisoned  singly, 
and  the  holes  were  tightly  plugged  up.  The 
result  of  these  experiments  was,  a  conclusion  that 
toads  cannot  live  a  year  excluded  totally  from 
atmospheric  air,  and  that  they  cannot  survive  two 
years,  if  entirely  prevented  from  obtaining  food. 

But  let  us,  before  we  depart,  look  into  the 
reptile-house  on  a  warm  summer  night.  We 
enter  with  a  dark  lanthorn.  The  light  is  no 
sooner  unveiled,  than  it  seems  to  have  a  Prome- 
thean effect  on  the  statue-like  forms  that  were  so 
still  in  the  morning  Now  the  scene  is  changed  ; 
now  all  is  action,  terrible  action  ;  and  we  behold 
the  monstrous  constricting  serpents,  and  the  hor- 
rible poisonous  snakes,  and  the  uncouth  lizards, 
writhing,  coiling,  creeping,  running,  and  pushing 
against  the  transparent  walls  of  their  crystal 
prison,  till  the  nervous  anxiety  of  some  tempera- 
ments may  be  pardoned  for  huddling  up  to  the 
keeper,  and  inquiring,  with  bated  breath,  whether 
the  glass  is  python  and  boa-constrictor  proof? 

March  27. — The  rain  it  raineth  every  day. 
The  peck  of  dust,  worth  a  king's  ransom,  will 
hardly  be  forthcoming,  and  the  farmer  begins  to 
be  uneasy  about  his  oats.  The  garden  in  the 
Regent's  Park  is  a  swamp.  Both  the  great  and 
smaller  tortoise  in  the  ostrich-house  are  dead,  as  I 
feared.  A  small  one  that  buries  itself  two  or 
three  feet  deep  in  the  earth,  exposed  to  all  the 
skyey  influences,  does  well.  Hippo  is  flourishing, 
and  now  has  clover-chaff  tea,  with  the  boiled  chaff 
as  a  change  of  diet.  •  He  drinks  the  tea,  and  then 
eats  the  sop.  His  tank  in  the  open  air  is  advanc- 
ing rapidly  towards  completion.  The  beautiful 
crested  pigeons,*  with  their  hybrid  young  one, 
are  in  fine  condition.  On  the  8th  September,  in 
the  last  year,  I  found  Goura  Victorias  on  her  nest, 
with  her  young  one  able  to  fly.  On  that  day  it 
was  five  weeks  old.  The  male  bird,  Goura  coro- 
nata,  better  known  as  "  the  great  Amboyna 
pigeon,"  which  belongs  to  her  majesty,  was 
strutting  about  on  the  ground.  His  productive 
alliance  with  the  species  which  bears  our  gracious 
queen's  name,  is  worthy  of  notice,  particularly 
when  the  difference  of  climate  is  taken  into  the 
account.  The  egg — there  was  only  one — from 
which  the  hybrid  sprung,  was  sat  on  twenty-eight 
days  before  the  young  bird  was  hatched,  by  both 
parents  ;  but  the  male  was  most  assiduous  and  the 
best  nurse. 

An  egg  was  laid  and  hatched  in  1849,  but  the 
young  one  died  a  day  or  two  after  its  exclusion. 
The  birds  showing  a  disposition  to  sit  in  1850, 
the  cover  of  a  basket  was  placed  upon  the  angle 
of  a  stout,  forked  pole,  in  the  great  aviary ;  and  a 
few  birch  twigs  furnished  to  them.  Out  of  these 
rough  materials  they  made  a  nest.  They  sat 
side  by  side.  The  male  always  sat  with  his  head 
fronting  the  spectator,  or  nearly  so,  as  if  he  was 
keeping  watch,  and  the  female  with  hers  exactly 
in  the  opposite  direction,  so  that  the  head  of  the 
cwk  was  parallel  to  the  tail  of  the  hen.  The 

*  Goura  coronata  and  Goura  Victorias. 


young  one  was  fed  from  the  crops  and  mouths  of 
both  parents. 

And  here  we  cannot  but  feel  with  John  Hun- 
ter, who  discovered  the  curious  organization  in 
the  dove  kind,  which  enables  the  parents  to  sup- 
port their  young  with  the  curd-like  contents  of 
their  crops — from  their  own  bodies,  in  short,  as 
the  mammalia  do  in  the  early  stages  of  the  exist- 
ence of  their  offspring— that  the  nourishment  of 
animals  admits,  perhaps,  of  as  much  variety  in 
the  mode  by  which  it  is  to  be  performed,  as 
any  circumstance  connected  with  their  economy, 
whether  we  consider  their  numerous  tribes,  the 
different  stages  through  which  every  animal 
passes,  or  the  food  adapted  to  each  in  their  dis- 
tinct conditions  and  situations.  The  food  fitted 
for  one  stage  of  life  is  rejected  at  another. 

Animal  life  (as  Hunter  observes)  may  be 
divided  into  three  states,  or  stages  :  the  first  com- 
prehending the  production  of  the  animal  and  its 
growth  in  the  fetal  state  ;  the  second  commencing 
when  it  emerges  from  that  state  by  what  is  called 
the  birth,  but  leaving  it  for  a  time,  either  medi- 
ately or  immediately  dependent  on  the  parent  for 
support ;  the  third  when  the  animal  is  able  to  act 
for  itself.  As  a  general  proposition,  it  may  be 
laid  down  that  the  first  and  third  stages  are  com- 
mon to  all  animals  ;  but  some  classes — fishes  and 
spiders,  for  instance — pass  directly  from  the  first 
to  the  third,  having  no  intermediate  stage. 

The  great  physiologist  then  notices  the  infinite 
variety  in  which  Nature  provides  for  the  support 
of  the  young  in  the  second  stage  of  animal  life, 
and  that  brings  him  to  the  statement  of  his  dis- 
covery. He  tells  us,  and  tells  us  truly,  that  the 
young  pigeon,  like  the  young  quadruped,  till  it  is 
capable  of  digesting  the  common  food  of  its  kind, 
is  fed  with  a  substance  secreted  for  that  purpose 
by  the  parent ;  not,  as  in  the  mammalia,  by  the 
female  alone,  but  by  the  male  also,  and  perhaps 
more  abundantly  than  by  the  female. 

Every  person  who  has  kept  parrots,  maccaws, 
and  birds  generally  of  that  family,  must  have 
noticed  the  power  possessed  by  them  of  throwing 
up  the  contents  of  the  crop,  and  feeding  each 
other.  Hunter,  in  common  with  others,  saw  a 
cock  paroquet  regularly  feed  his  hen,  by  first 
filling  his  own  crop,  and  supplying  her  thence 
from  his  beak ;  and  he  notices  what  every  observer 
who  has  kept  such  birds  must  have  remarked — 
namely,  that  when  they  are  very  fond  of  the  per- 
son who  feeds  and  attends  upon  them,  they  per- 
form the  action  of  throwing  up  food,  and  often  do 
it.  The  cock  pigeon,  when  he  caresses  the  hen, 
goes  through  the  same  forms  of  action  as  when  he 
feeds  his  young  ;  but  Hunter  adds,  that  he  does 
not  know  if  at  this  time  he  throws  up  anything 
from  the  crop.  I  have  observed  a  similar  action, 
during  the  breeding  season  in  rooks  ;  and  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  the  cocks  feed  the  hens 
while  they  are  sitting,  as  well  as  the  young,  with 
food  saved  in  a  kind  of  gular  pouch  under  the 
lower  mandible,  but  I  do  not  know  whether  they 
feed  either  the  hens  or  the  young  with  food  which 


130 


LEAVES    FROM   THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF    A    NATURALIST. 


has  undergone  any  alteration  in  the  crop,  or 
whether  the  hens  feed  their  young  or  their  mates 
with  such  provender.  Hunter,  from  the  observa- 
tions made  by  him  on  the  parrot-kind,  states  that 
he  has  reason  to  suppose  that  they  are  endowed 
with  the  same  power  as  the  pigeons. 

As  the  breasts  or  udders  of  mammiferous  fe- 
males become  gradually  enlarged  and  thickened  at 
the  time  of  uterine  gestation,  so,  during  incuba- 
tion, are  the  coats  of  the  pigeon's  crop  ;  and  John 
Hunter,  on  comparing  the  state  of  that  organ 
when  the  bird  was  not.  sitting,  with  its  appearance 
during  incubation,  found  the  difference  very  re- 
markable. In  the  first  case,  it  was  thin  and  mem- 
branous ;  but  by  the  time  when  the  young-  were 
about  to  be  hatched,  the  whole,  except  the  portion 
which  lay  under  the  trachea,  became  thicker,  and 
assumed  a  glandular  appearance,  having  its  inter- 
nal surface  very  irregular.  It  was  likewise  evi- 
dently more  vascular  than  in  its  former  state,  in 
order  to  the  conveyance  of  a  quantity  of  blood 
sufficient  for  the  nourishing  substance. 

*  Whatever  may  be  the  consistence  of  this  sub- 
stance when  just  secreted,  it  most  probably  very 
soon  coagulates  into  a  granulated  white  curd,  for 
in  such  form,"  says  Hunter,  in  continuation,  "  I 
have  always  found  it  in  the  crop ;  and  if  an  old 
pigeon  is  killed  just  as  the  young  ones  are  hatch- 
ing, the  crop  will  be  found  as  above  described, 
and  in  its  cavity  pieces  of  white  curd,  mixed  with 
some  of  the  common  food  of  the  pigeon,  such  as 
barley,  beans,  &c.  If  we  allow  either  of  the  par- 
ents to  feed  the  brood,  the  crop  of  the  young 
pigeons  when  examined  will  be  discovered  to  con- 
tain the  same  kind  of  curdled  substance  as  that  of 
the  old  ones,  which  passes  from  thence  into  the 
stomach,  where  it  is  to  be  digested." 

The  joke  about  "  pigeon's  milk"  is  not  so 
groundless,  after  all.  But  see  how  beautifully 
this  dispensation  is  ordered,  according  to  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  nestling  : — 

The  young  pigeon  is  fed  for  a  little  time  with 
this  substance  only,  as  about  the  third  day  some  of 
the  common  food  is  found  mingled  with  it ;  as  the 
pigeon  grows  older,  the  proportion  of  common  food 
is  increased  ;  so  that  by  the  time  it  is  seven,  eight, 
or  nine  days  old,  the  secretion  of  the  curd  ceases 
in  the  old  ones,  and  of  course  no  more  will  be 
found  in  the  crop  of  the  young.  It  is  a  curious 
fact,  that  the  parent  pigeon  has  at  first  a  power  to 
throw  up  his  curd  without  any  mixture  of  common 
food,  although,  afterwards,  both  are  thrown  up, 
according  to  the  proportion  required  for  the  young 
ones. 

I  have  called  this  substance  curd,  not  as  being 
literally  so,  but  as  resembling  that  more  than  any- 
thing I  know ;  it  may,  however,  have  a  greater 
resemblance  to  curd  than  we  are  perhaps  aware  of, 
for  neither  this  secretion,  nor  curd  from  which  the 
whey  has  been  pressed,  seems  to  contain  any  sugar, 
and  do  not  run  into  the  acetous  fermentation.  The 
property  of  coagulating  is  confined  to  the  substance 
itself,  as  it  produces  no  such  effect  when  mixed 
with  milk.  This  secretion  in  the  pigeon,  like  all 
other  animal  substances,  becomes  putrid  by  stand- 
ing, though  not  so  readily  as  either  blood  or  meat, 


it  resisting  putrefaction  for  a  considerable  time  ; 
neither  will  curd  much  pressed  become  putrid  so 
soon  as  either  blood  or  meat.* 

Those  who  would  wish  to  examine  this  phe- 
nomenon more  closely  will  find  preparations  of  the 
pigeon's  crop  in  that  noble  museum,f  which  is 
John  Hunter's  best  monument.  No  young  birds 
are  in  so  forlorn  a  state  as  young  pigeons,  if  the 
parents  are  killed  before  the  young  can  provide 
for  themselves.  Birds  of  other  species,  stimu- 
lated by  the  cries  of  the  starving  young  which 
have  been  deprived  of  parental  aid,  can  and  do 
assist  the  little  wretches,  but  none  except  an  old 
pigeon  with  its  crop  in  a  proper  state  can  save  the 
life  of  a  nestling  dove. 

The  gouras,  by  whose  alliance  a  third  colum- 
ban  form  of  the  same  race  has  been  ushered  into 
this  breathing  world  of  ours,  in  their  natural  stale, 
are  probably  employed,  like  others  of  the  dove 
kind,  in  disseminating  the  fragrant  nutmegs 
through  New  Guinea,  the  Moluccas,  and  other 
islands.  For  Sonnerat  declares,  and  with  truth, 
that  the  pigeons  which  swallow  the  nuts  whole 
are  nourished  by  the  enveloping  case,  which  is 
alone  digested,  leaving  the  nut  iiself  uninjured,  or 
rather  more  readily  prepared  for  germinating  on 
the  soil  whereon  it  is  dropped. 

The  Zoological  Society  possesses  a  very  fine 
collection  of  Columbida,  and  a  most  interesting 
tribe  they  are.  Messengers  of  love,  of  peace, 
and  of  war,  they  are  allied  very  nearly,  as  we 
have  seen  above,  to  the  mammalia  in  one  part  of 
their  organization,  and  resemble  them  in  some  of 
their  habits  ;  for  pigeons  do  not  drink  like  most 
birds  by  taking  up  a  small  quantity  of  water  at  a 
time,  and  throwing  the  head  upward  and  back- 
ward, but,  like  horses  or  kine,  suck  up  a  long 
continuous  draught  without  raising  the  head,  till 
thirst  is  satisfied. 

Columba  :  whence  the  name  1  Varro  declares 
from  its  cooing.  Did'the  same  impression  of  its 
notes  on  the  ancient  British  ear  call  forth  a  simi- 
lar appellation,  and  induce  our  ancestors  to  name 
the  birds  colommen,  kylobman,  kulm,  kolm,  and 
culver  ? 

The  perseverance  with  which  some  of  the 
varieties,  the  carriers  especially,  when  well 
trained,  will  return  from  very  long  distances,  is 
wonderful  : — 

It  blew  and  it  rained. 
The  pigeon  disdained 

To  seek  shelter — undaunted  he  flew  ; 
Till  wet  was  his  wing, 
And  painful  the  string, 

So  heavy  the  letter  it  grew. 

This  same  faculty,  which  in  comparatively 
modern  times  was  degraded  to  giving  notice  to  the 

*  Animal  Economy,  edited  by  Professor  Owen.  Long- 
man and  Co. 

f  The  museum  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of 
England,  rendered  doubly  valuable  by  the  learned  and 
elaborate  Catalogue  by  Professor  Owen,  in  5  vols.  4to. 
The  preparations  are  numbered  3737  to  3741,  both  inclu- 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


131 


authorities  that  the  finisher  of  the  law  had  done 
his  duty  on  the  Tyburn  hanging  days — Hogarth's 
graphic  record  of  the  custom  will  occur  to  most,* 
— which  afterwards  sank  to  being  the  bearer  of 
the  news  of  the  prize  ring,  and  now-a-days  con- 
veys the  price  of  stocks  to  and  from  the  continent, 
or  brings  the  first  intelligence  of  the  winner  of  the 
Derby,  kept  Hirtius  and  Brutus  constantly  in- 
formed of  each  other's  designs  and  movements,  as 
the  besieger,  Antony,  felt  to  his  cost.  In  vain 
did  he  spread  his  nets  and  try  every  stratagem  to 
bafils  these  couriers  of  the  air  :  he  had  the  morti- 
fication of  seeing  them  going  and  returning  to  and 
fro  over  the  beleaguered  walls  of  Mutina.  Anac- 
reon's  dove  was  employed  on  a  more  gentle  mis- 
sion.f  And  Taurosthenes  sent  one  decked  with 
purple  to  his  happy  father  in  the  Island  of  JEgina 
with  the  news  of  his  victory  at  the  Olympic  games 
on  the  day  of  the  pigeon's  arrival.J  We  have 
the  authority  of  Sir  John  Maundeville — he  who 
made  his  way  to  the  border  of  China  in  the  reigns 
of  our  second  and  third  Edward — that  the  Asiatics 
used  them  for  the  same  purpose  as  the  Romans. 

In  that  contree,  and  other  contrees  bezonde,  (says 
that  knight,  warrior,  and  pilgrim,)  thei  han  a  cus- 
tom whan  thei  schulle  usen  werre,  and  whan  men 
holden  sege  abouten  cytee  or  castelle,  and  thei 
withinnen  dur  not  senden  out  messangers  with  let- 
tere,  fro  lord  to  lord,  for  to  aske  sokour,  thei 
maken  here  letters  and  bynden  them  to  the  nekke 
of  a  colver,  and  letten  the  colver  flee  ;  and  the  col- 
vern  been  so  taughte,  that  they  flee  with  the  letters 
to  the  very  place  that  men  wolde  sende  them  to. 
For  the  coheres  been  noryscht  in  tho  places  where 
thei  ben  sent  to  ;  and  thei  senden  hem  thus  far  to 
beren  here  letters.  And  the  coheres  tetuornen 
azen  where  as  thei  ben  norisscht,  and  so  they  don 
comrnounly. 

During  the  crusade  of  St.  Louis§  they  were 
so  employed  ;  Tasso  pressed  them  into  the  ser- 
vice in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  ;||  and  Ariosto 
makes  a  dove  the  messenger  that  spread  the  news 
of  Orrilo's  death  through  Egypt. ^f 

The  rapidity  and  power  of  flight  of  some  of  the 
species  is  almost  incredible.  The  passenger 
pigeon**  has  been  killed  in  the  neighborhood  of 
New  York  with  its  crop  full  of  rice,  which  the  bird 
could  not  have  procured  nearer  than  the  fields  of 
Georgia  and  Carolina.  Audubon,  who  relates 
this  startling,  but,  I  believe,  true  fact,  observes 
that,  as  their  power  of  digestion  is  so  great  that 
they  will  decompose  food  entirely  in  twelve  hours, 
the  birds  which  were  taken  in  the  neighborhood 
of  New  York  must  have  travelled  between  three 
and  four  hundred  miles  in  six  hours,  an  average 
of  speed  that  reminds  one  of  the  famous  horse 
Childers.  He,  however,  could  not  have  sus- 
tained his  "  flying"  pace  of  a  mile  a  minute  for 
more  than  a  very  short  period,  whereas  the  bird 
is  capable  of  keeping  up  its  wonderful  rate  of 

*  Etty's  dove  ascending  at  the  moment  of  Joan's  agony, 
and  heralding  the  conclusion  of  the  ardent  logic  of  the 
stake,  will  also  be  remembered. 

t  Ode  9.       J  JElian.       §  Joinville.       ||  Book  xviii. 

IT  Canto  xv.          **  Ectopistcs  migratoria.     Swainson. 


progression  during  many  successive  hours.  The 
passenger  pigeon  would  thus,  as  Audnbon  ob- 
serves, be  enabled,  were  it  so  inclined,  to  visit 
Europe  in  less  than  three  days.  Instances  are 
not  wanting  of  its  presence  here  ;  but  the  Amer- 
ican naturalist,  who  presented  a  number  of  these 
birds  to  the  Earl  of  Derby  in  1830,  with  whom 
they  bred,  seems  to  think  that  those  which  have 
been  seen  at  liberty  in  this  country  had  escaped 
from  some  aviary. 

Wagers  have  been  laid  and  matches  have  been 
made  to  determine  the  rate  of  a  carrier  pigeon's 
flight.  In  1808  a  young  man  in  the  Borough  un- 
dertook that  his  pigeons  would  fly  thirty-five 
miles  in  one  hour.  Three  were  thrown  up  at 
five  o'clock  in  the  evening  beyond  Tunbridge 
Wells,  and  arrived  at  their  owner's  residence  in 
fifty-three  minutes,  thus  beating  time  by  seven 
minutes.  A  gentleman  had  a  wager  on  this 
event,  and  he  sent  a  pigeon  by  the  stage-coach  to 
Bury  St.  Edmund's,  with  a  request  that  the  bird, 
two  days  after  its  arrival  there,  might  be  thrown 
up  as  the  clock  struck  nine  in  the  morning.  This 
was  done  ;  and  at  half-past  eleven  o'clock  on  that 
morning  the  pigeon  was  shown  at  the  Bull  Inn, 
Bishopsgate,  into  the  loft  of  which  respectable 
establishment  it  had  entered,  having  made  its  way 
to  that  point  in  London  in  two  hours  and  a  half, 
and  having  traversed  seventy-two  aerial  miles. 

When  the  trial  of  the  annual  prize  for  the  best 
carrier  pigeon  was  decided  at  Ghent  on  the  24th 
June,  1833,  twenty-four  birds  which  had  been 
conveyed  from  that  town  were  thrown  up  at 
Rouen  at  fifty-five  minutes  after  nine  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  The  distance  is  150  miles,  be  the 
same,  in  lawyer's  phrase,  more  or  less,  and  the 
first  pigeon  arrived  at  Ghent  in  an  hour  and  a 
half,  sixteen  came  in  within  two  hours  and  a  half, 
and  three  in  the  course  of  the  day.  Four  were 
lost. 

He  who  would  train  a  carrier  pigeon  must  take 
a  young  one  that  is  fully  fledged,  and  convey  it  in 
a  basket  or  bag,  at  first  not  more  than  half  a 
mile  from  home,  and  then  turn  it  loose.  After  a 
repetition  of  this  short  journey  twice  or  thrice,  the 
future  messenger  should  be  taken  to  a  distance  of 
two,  four,  eight,  ten,  twelve,  fifteen  miles,  and 
so  on,  and  then  turned  loose,  till  it  will  return* 
from  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  kingdom.  The 
younger  the  bird  is,  if  it  have  strength  to  fly  well, 
the  greater  is  the  chance  of  educating  it  for  a 
trusty  bearer  of  a  despatch.  If  this  drilling  is 
not  commenced  early,  birds  of  the  best  breed  can- 
not be  trusted.  Those  who  would  succeed  are 
careful  to  keep  the  pigeon  about  to  be  sent  off  in 
the  dark  without  food  for  some  seven  or  eight 
hours  before  it  is  loosed.  When  thrown  up,  the- 
bird  rises,  and  when  it  has  reached  a  good  height,, 
will  at  first  fly  round  and  round,  and  then  make  off,, 
continuing  on  the  wing  without  stop  or  stay,  un- 
less prevented,  till  its  well-known  home  is  reached. 
A  word  to  the  wise  by  the  way.  Never  throw 
up  your  bird  in  a  fog  or  hazy  weather,  or  't  is  tem 
to  one  against  its  reaching  its  destination,  or  your 


132 


LEAVES    FROM   THE    NOTE-BOOK   OF   A    NATURALIST. 


seeing  it  again.  Those  who  have  been  in  the 
habit  of  travelling  by  the  short  stages  or  omni- 
ouses  in  the  neighborhood  of  London — to  Hamp- 
ton and  Sunbury,  for  instance — must  have  ob- 
served one  of  these  aerial  messengers  suddenly 
delivered  from  its  darksome  bag  and  thrown  up 
by  one  of  the  "  outsides"  to  find  its  way  home. 

The  spiral  flight,  when  the  birds  are  thrown 
up,  is  evidently  flight  of  observation,  and  when  they 
catch  sight  of  any  well-know  landmark,  away  they 
go  homeward.  But  they  are  lost  if  no  such 
objects  are  within  ken.  Thus  pigeons,  when 
loosed  from  a  balloon  at  a  great  height,  after  fly- 
ing round  and  round,  have  returned  to  the  bal- 
loon for  want  of  objects  to  guide  them  in  their 
flight  homeward.  And  yet  there  is  on  record  a 
wonderful  instance  of  their  return  to  their  domi- 
cile under  circumstances  of  great  difficulty,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  as  far  as  guide-marks  are  con- 
cerned. 

The  battle  of  Solebay  was  fought  on  the  28th 
of  May,  1672.  Captain  Carleton  was  a  volun- 
teer on  board  the  London  man-of-war  in  that  en- 
gagement, and  he  relates  that  on  the  first  firing 
of  the  London's  guns,  a  number  of  pigeons  kept 
in  the  ship,  and  of  which  the  commander  was  very 
fond,  flew  away.  Nowhere  were  they  seen  near 
during  the  fight.  It  blew  a  brisk  gale  next  day, 
and  the  British  fleet  was  driven  some  leagues  to 
the  southward  of  the  place  where  the  birds  for- 
sook the  ship.  The  day  after,  back  came  the 
pigeons — not  in  one  flock,  but  in  small  parties  of 
four  or  five  at  a  time,  till  all  the  birds  were  safe 
on  board. 

This  unexpected  return  caused  some  conversa- 
tion on  board  ;  when  Sir  Edward  Sprage  told  those 
who  expressed  their  surprise  that  he  brought 
those  pigeons  with  him  from  the  Straights,  and 
that  when  he  left  the  Revenge  for  the  London,  all 
those  birds,  of  their  own  accord,  and  without  the 
trouble  or  care  of  carrying,  left  the  Revenge,  and 
removed  with  the  seamen  to  the  London.* 

Our  tame  varieties  are  generally  considered, 
and  with  good  reason,  to  be  derived  from  the 
Blue  Rock  pigeon,  or  Rockier. f  Pennant  de- 
scribes this  species  as  swarming  in  the  Orkneys 
and  Hebrides,  and  says  that  in  the  Orkneys  they 
collect  by  thousands  towards  winter,  and  do  "great 
damage  to  rick-yards.  He  saw  in  Hay,  the  bot- 
toms of  the  great  chasms  covered  with  their  dung 
for  many  feet  in  thickness,  which  was  drawn 
up  in  buckets,'  and  used  successfully  as  manure. 
But  great  as  is  the  facility  with  which  they 
are  domesticated,  they  occasionally  show  symp- 
toms of  their  original  wildness.  Pennant  knew 
a  dove-cot,  not  far  from  Orm's-head,  where  the 
pigeons  resided,  on  account  of  the  supply  of 
food,  till  the  breeding  season,  when  liberty  and 
love  led  them  from  the  artificial  pigeon-holes 
to  those  wild  and  vast  rocks. 

This  species  abounds  in  the  rocky  islands  of 
the  Mediterranean,  and  was  no  stranger  to  Vir- 

*  Cnrlftf,n''s  Memoirs;  and  see  Yarrell's  highly  intcrest- 
ijng  British  Birds. 
f  Columba  livia. 


gil,  as  the  beautiful  lines  in  the  fifth  ^Eneid* 
show. 

Even  in  this  vast  brick  Babylon,  some  pigeons 
breed  about  Somerset  House,  both  on  the  river 
and  land  side.  They  are  probably  birds  which 
have  been  domesticated,  and  have  escaped,  pre- 
ferring a  comparatively  wild  life,  with  the  sup- 
plies afforded  by  the  wharves  and  barges. 

The  proneness  to  domestication  in  this  bird,  or 
rather  in  one  of  the  varieties  from  it,  was  strongly 
contrasted  with  the  impracticability  of  reconciling 
the  ring-dove,  cushat,  or  wood-pigeon,  (Columba 
palumbus,)  to  captivity,  in  Colonel  Montagu's  ex- 
periment. It  is  true  that  he  tamed  them  within 
doors,  "so  as  to  be  exceedingly  troublesome  ;" 
but  he  never  could  produce  a  breed,  either  by 
themselves  or  with  the  tame  pigeon.  Two  were 
bred  up  by  him,  together  with  a  male  pigeon,  and 
were  so  tame  as  to  eat  out  of  the  hand  ;  but  the 
genial  spring  brought  no  signs  of  breeding,  so  they 
were  suffered  to  take  their  liberty  in  the  month  of 
June,  by  opening  the  window  of  the  room  in  which 
they  were  confined,  the  colonel  thinking  that  the 
pigeon  might  induce  them  to  return  to  their  usual 
place  of  abode,  either  for  food  or  to  roost ;  but 
no  ;  they  instantly  took  to  their  natural  habits, 
and  the  colonel  saw  them  no  more.  The  pigeon 
continued  to  return. 

The  gouras,  it  will  be  remarked,  contrary  to 
the  general  habit  of  the  Columbidae,  laid  only  one 
egg,  and  the  passenger  pigeon,  according  to  Wil- 
son, lays  no  more.  In  1832,  a  pair  of  passengers 
began  a  nest  on  the  25th  of  April,  in  a  fir-tree 
planted  in  one  of  the  enclosures  in  the  garden  in 
the  Regent's  Park.  The  hen  was  the  architect, 
but  the  cock  was  the  laborer.  Most  perseveringly 
did  he  collect  and  convey  to  the  selected  spot, 
sticks,  straws,  and  other  nest  materials.  Every  time 
became  in  with  his  build  ing  materials,  he  alighted 
on  the  back  of  the  hen,  so  as  not  to  disturb  any 
part  of  the  structure  which  she  had  finished.  On 
the  morning  of  the  26th,  one  egg  was  laid,  and  the 
hen  immediately  began  to  sit.  The  cock  took  his 
turn  at  incubation,  and  when  sixteen  days  had 
passed,  the  young  bird  appeared. 

But  if  only  one  egg  is  laid  by  the  passenger 
pigeon,  the  numbers  of  the  species  exceed  belief, 
and  they  afford  a  most  plentiful  supply  to  our 
Transatlantic  cousins.  Their  roosting-places  in 
those  deep  and  extensive  forests  exhibit  an  ex- 
traordinary spectacle.  The  dung-covered  ground 
is  strewn  with  the  limbs  of  the  trees  broken  down 
by  their  weight ;  the  grass  and  underwood  are 
destroyed,  and  not  unfrequently  thousands  of  acres 
of  trees  are  killed.  Upon  the  discovery  of  one  of 
these  roosts,  the  whole  country  comes  in  to  wage 
war  upon  the  birds  during  the  night,  with  all 
sorts  of  destructive  engines ;  guns,  clubs,  long 
poles,  and  sulphur-pots,  are  plied  in  all  directions, 
till  the  invaders  have  filled  their  sacks  and  loaded 
their  horses  to  their  hearts'  content. 

But  the  breeding-places  are  even  more  exten- 
sive than  the  roosts.  These,  in  the  states  of  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  and  Indiana,  are  generally  in  the  back- 

*  L.  213,  <fec. 


LEAVES    FROM    THE    NOTE-BOOK    OF    A    NATURALIST. 


133 


woods,  and  often  extend  far  across  the  country. 
Wilson  saw  one  not  far  from  Shelbyville,  in  Ken- 
tucky, which  stretched  nearly  north  and  south 
through  the  woods,  extending  upwards  of  forty 
miles,  with  a  breadth  of  several  miles.  In  this 
tract  almost  every  tree  bore  nests,  wherever  there 
was  nest-room  in  the  branches.  The  pigeons 
made  their  first  appearance  about  the  10th  of 
April,  and  those  which  escaped  left  the  place 
with  their  young  before  the  25th  of  May.  As 
soon  as  the  young  were  fully  grown,  and  before 
they  all  left  the  nests,  large  parties  of  the  inhabi- 
tants came  from  all  the  parts  adjacent,  with  wag- 
ons, axes,  beds,  and  working  utensils,  and,  with 
their  families,  encamped  at  this  immense  nursery. 
Some  of  tHem  told  Wilson  that  the  noise  was  so 
great  that  their  horses  were  terrified,  and  that  it 
was  difficult  for  one  person  to  hear  another  speak, 
without  bawling  in  his  ear.  The  scene  must  have 
been  exciting  and  disgusting.  The  ground  was 
strewed  with  broken  limbs  of  trees,  eggs,  and 
young  squab  pigeons,  on  which  herds  of  hogs 
were  fattening.  In  the  air,  great  numbers  of 
hawks,  buzzards,  and  eagles  were  sailing,  bearing 
away  the  squabs  from  their  nests  at  pleasure, 
while  from  twenty  feet  upwards  to  the  tree-tops 
was  one  perpetual  tumult  of  crowding  and  flutter- 
ing multitudes  of  pigeons,  their  wings  roaring 
like  thunder.  This  din  was  heightened  by  the 
crash  of  falling  timber  as  the  strokes  of  the  axemen 
brought  down  the  trees  most  crowded  with  nests, 
which  they  contrived  to  fell  so  as  to  bring  down 
several  other  trees  in  the  fall.  Two  hundred 
squabs,  little  inferior  in  size  to  the  old  ones,  and 
one  heap  of  fat,  were  sometimes  collected  from 
one  fallen  tree.  Each  nest  contained  one  squab 
only. 

Wilson  passed  for  several  miles  through  this 
same  breeding-place,  after  the  pigeons  abandoned 
it  for  another  sixty  or  eighty  miles  ofF,  and  saw 
enough  of  the  remains  of  the  nests  to  satisfy  him 
that  the  account  which  he  had  heard  was  not  ex- 
aggerated. The  great  numbers  that  passed  over 
his  head  confirmed  him  in  this  opinion.  Not- 
withstanding the  havoc  that  had  been  made  among 
the  birds,  they  still  swarmed.  The  mast  had 
been  for  the  most  part  consumed  in  Kentucky  ; 
and  every  morning,  a  little  before  sunrise,  masses 
of  these  pigeons  set  out  for  the  Indiana  territory, 
about  sixty  miles  distant.  Many  of  them  returned 
before  ten  o'clock,  but  the  main  body  generally 
appeared  on  their  return  a  little  after  noon. 

Wilson  had  left  the  public  road  to  visit  the 
ruins  of  the  breeding-place  near  Shelbyville,  and 
was  traversing  the  woods  with  his  gun  on  the 
way  to  Frankfort,  when,  about  ten  o'clock,  the 
pigeons  which  he  had  observed  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  morning  flying  northerly,  began  to  re- 
turn in  such  immense  numbers  as  he  had  never 
before  seen.  He  stopped  at  an  opening  by  the 
side  of  Benson  Creek,  where  he  had  a  more  unin- 
terrupted view,  and  there  to  his  astonishment  he 
beheld  them  flying  with  great  steadiness  and  rapid- 
ity at  a  height  above  gun-shot,  in  several  strata 


deep,  and  close  together.  On  they  came,  and 
from  right  to  left  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach, 
the  breadth  of  this  vast  winged  procession,  every- 
where equally  crowded,  extended.  He  took  out 
his  watch  to  note  the  time,  and  sat  down  to  ob- 
serve the  passing  masses.  It  was  half-past  one, 
and  for  more  than  an  hour  did  Wilson  sit,  ex- 
pecting that  this  aerial  animated  stream  would 
cease  to  flow  ;  but  instead  of  a  diminution,  the  vast 
procession  seemed  to  increase  in  numbers  and 
rapidity.  As  he  was  anxious  to  reach  Frankfort 
before  night,  he  rose  and  went  on.  At  that  town 
he  crossed  Kentucky  river,  about  four  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon,  at  which  time  the  living  torrent 
above  his  head  seemed  as  strong  and  as  extensive 
as  ever.  Long  after  this,  large  bodies  continued 
to  pass  for  six  or  eight  minutes.  These  were 
followed  by  other  detached  flights,  all  moving  in 
the  same  south-east  direction,  till  after  six  o'clock 
in  the  evening. 

A  rough  calculation  of  this  mass  was  made  by 
the  delightful  American  ornithologist,  and  he  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  its  whole  length  was  240 
miles,  and  that  the  numbers  composing  it  amounted 
to  2,230,272,000  pigeons  at  least ;  indeed,  he  ex- 
presses his  conviction  that  these  enormous  num- 
bers are  probably  far  below  the  actual  amount. 

Think  of  the  consumption  of  such  legions. 
Wilson  did  think  of  it,  and  observes,  that  allow- 
ing each  pigeon  to  consume  half  a  pint  of  food  per 
diem,  the  whole  quantity  would  equal  17,424,000 
bushels  daily. 

Audubon,  who  has,  to  the  great  regret  of  his 
friends,  lately  gone,  full  of  years  and  honors,  by 
that  dark  road  which  must  be  passed  by  us  all, 
confirms  Wilson  in  every  particular,  except  that 
Audubon  declares  that  the  passenger  pigeon  lays 
tivo  eggs.  We  have  seen  that,  in  confinement, 
this  bird,  like  the  gouras,  laid  but  one. 

Lawson,  in  his  Natural  History  of  Carolina, 
(1714,)  records  facts  which  confirm  Wilson  and 
Audubon  as  to  the  numbers  of  these  pigeons,  de- 
claring that  the  flocks,  as  they  passed,  in  great 
measure  obstructed  the  light  of  day. 

The  great  fertility  of  the  dove-kind  suffices  to 
keep  up  numbers  more  than  adequate  to  resist  the 
attacks  of  hawks  and  other  birds  of  prey,  and  the 
still  more  sweeping  destruction  of  man  the  omnir- 
orous.  Biberg*  remarks,  that  if  you  suppose 
two  pigeons  to  hatch  nine  times  a  year,  they  may 
produce  in  four  years  14,672  young  ;  arid  Stilling- 
fleet  states  that  these  numbers  ought  to  have  been 
14,670,  or  the  expression  should  have  been  al- 
tered, for  Biberg  includes  the  first  pair. 

On  the  day  that  I  observed  the  young  hybrid 
goura,"  I  watched  the  wart-hogs  (Phacochcerus.) 
Their  mode  of  attack  is  by  going  on  their  knees 
like  the  gnu;  and,  young  as  they  were,  they  al- 
ready had  callosities  on  those  parts.  They  were 
exercising  their  tusks  in  a  sham-fight  with  an 
empty  bag,  which,  dropping  on  their  knees,  they 
charged,  tossed  up,  and,  rising,  caught  it  on  their 
tusks.  In  the  course  of  their  gambols,  they  threw 
.  *  Am.  Acad. 


134 


LEAVES  FROM  THE  NOTE-BOOK  OF  A  NATURALIST. 


the  bag  on  the  top  of  the  railing  of  their  inclosnre. 
One  of  them  raised  itself  on  its  hind  legs,  jumped 
at  it,  and  pulled  it  down  with  its  mouth,  when 
they  resumed  their  game  with  it.  The  attack  of 
the  full-grown  animal,  with  its  enormous  sabre- 
like  tusks,  must  be  most  formidable. 

Shortly  afterwards,  I  came  on  a  flock  of  ten 
hoopoes,  and  stood  admiring  their  butterfly-like 
flight,  which  must  aid  them  in  their  escape  from 
hawks,  as  the  desultory  motions  of  the  butterflies 
when  on  the  wing  save  them  from  fly-catchers  and 
other  small  birds. 

The  three  young  grisly  (?)  bears  were  in  high 
force,  one  appealing  to  the  people  most  energet- 
ically for  supplies,  another  dancing  merrily,  and 
the  third  lagging  behind  with  a  sort  of  minuet 
step.  This  lag  had,  no  doubt,  his  reasons  for 
remaining  in  the  back-ground,  for  I  observed  that 
when  the  spectators  threw  food  to  the  party,  it 
frequently  passed  over  the  two  foremost,  and  was 
quietly  appropriated  by  the  retiring  character. 
The  attitude  of  the  orator  was  a  study  for  St. 
Stephen's.  They  are  evidently  favorites,  and  all 
three  came  in  for  their  share  ;  but  the  Cleon  of 
the  party  secured  the  greatest  portion  of  the  elee- 
mosynary biscuit. 

5th  April,  1851. — New  lion  arrived  from  South 
Africa,  and  good  friends  with  Cocksedge  already. 
The  Sumatran  Tapir  looking  in  good  health. 
The  carunculated  crane  and  lovely  Mandarin  ducks 
in  high  feather.  Works  everywhere  in  progress 
to  add  to  attraction  in  this  annus  miralilis.  Hippo 
was  having  a  game  of  romps  with  a  young  Egyp- 
tian gentleman  lately  come  over,  but  kept  in  the 
water,  and  now  and  then  made  a  very  queer  face 
at  his  playmate.  The  tank  in  the  open  air  near 
the  giraffe-house  is  finished,  and  seats  are  prepar- 
ing for  the  spectators,  so  that  a  multitude  of  all 
nations  may,  during  this  exhibiting  summer,  see 
Hippo  in  his  bath  at  their  ease.  A  building  is 
rising  for  Mr.  Gould's  magnificent  collection  of 
humming-birds,  the  finest  and  most  numerous 
ever  brought  together.  The  work  in  which  they 
will  be  given  to  the  public  will  surpass  those  of 
this  enterprising  and  liberal  zoologist  already 
before  the  world,  brilliant  as  they  are.  Though 
the  true  Egyptian  crocodile  died  on  the  voyage, 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  another  may  be 
soon  forthcoming.  Poor  Mr.  Duncan  has  done  his 
best  to  interest  the  King  of  Dahomey  to  obtain  a 
live  African  elephant,  as  our  readers  may  remem- 
ber, but  Captain  Forbes,  who  seems  actuated  by 
the  same  kindly  feelings  towards  the  society,  found 
that  the  king  classed  this  attempt  among  the  impos- 


sibilities. His  majesty  could  understand  how  a 
wild  elephant  might  be  entrapped  into  a  pitfall — 
but  to  get  him  out  and  lead  him  away — no — he 
could  not  or  would  not  believe  in  the  possibility 
of  that.  But  if  there  is  a  failure  in  the  south, 
the  Viceroy  of  Egypt  rules  in  the  north  ;  and 
there  are  safe  grounds  for  hoping,  that  through 
his  highness''  powerful  liberality,  both  an  Afri- 
can elephant  and  a  rhinoceros  may  be  forthcoming, 
good  Mr.  Murray  being  on  the  spot  to  lake  care 
of  the  much  desired  additions.  With  the  lide  of 
foreigners  setting  in  to  inundate  these  islands,  two 
orangs  from  Borneo,  three  feet  high,  and  rejoicing 
in  the  names  of  Darby  and  Joan,  are  coming. 
Despatches  have  already  been  received,  with  a 
programme  for  their  treatment  from  morning  till 
night : 

Every  day  when  they  go  to  dine, 

They  're  to  have,  at  one,  a  slice  of  pine  ! 

Poor  dear  Theodore  !  If  he  were  spared  to 
us,  what  a  second  edition  of  The  Chimpanzee  we 
should  have. 

Negotiations  are  pending  with  Leyden  for  a 
visit  from  the  gigantic  Salamander,  Sicboldtia 
maxima,  found  by  Dr.  Von  Siebold,  in  such  a 
lake  as  we  read  of  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  on  a 
basaltic  mountain  in  Japan,  and  brought  away 
some  twelve  years  since  by  the  learned  doctor. 
The  giant  loved  his  wife,  taken  at  the  same  time, 
so  well,  that  he  ate  her  up  during  the  passage  to 
Europe,  and  has  thriven  accordingly.  This  is 
the  closest  living  analogue  to  the  fossil  Andrias 
Scheuchzeri,  the  Homo  diluvii  tcstis  of  that  learned 
illustrator  of  the  Bible.  I  should  not  be  surprised 
if  Mr.  Mitchell,  with  whom  all  things  seem  pos- 
sible, were,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  to  beg  or  bor- 
row an  egg  of  the  gigantic  bird  of  Madagascar, 
fit  rival  for  the.  New  Zealand  Moa.*  Two  of 
j  these  eggs,  besides  fragments,  are  in  Paris. 
Each  would  hold  six  ostrich  eggs,  sixteen  emeu 
eggs,  one  hundred  and  forty  eggs  of  the  common 
barn  door  hen,  and  a  thousand  humming-bird  eggs. 
Old  Sinbad  was  a  true  man,  after  all  ;  and  we 
may  catch  a  Rok  yet.f 

*  Dinornis.  Owen.  Nearly  a  perfect  skeleton  of  this 
form  has  been  found  lying  together,  and  is  on  its  way  to 
this  country. 

t  I  have  just  seen  (April  19)  the  Asiatic  elephant, 
with  her  calf,  seven  months  old,  at  her  side.  They  have 
been  secured  to  the  Zoological  Society  by  the  energetic 
management;  and  I  hear  that  "more  elephants  "  are 
coming.  Four  are  now  to  be  seen  in  this  noble  collection  ; 
and  before  the  year  is  out,  a  herd  will  probably  be  exhib- 
ited in  the  Regent's  Park. 


NOTICES  OF  LITTELL'S  LIVING  AGE. 


5T&C  3San  .State,  Xnnn,  J&s.—  We  have  been 
a  constant  subscriber  to  this  work  from  its  com- 
mencement, and  can  join  in  the  high  commenda- 
tions which  it  calls  forth  from  the  press,  and  all 
who  are  fortunate  enough  to  secure  it.  We  would 
part  with  most  of  the  magazines  of  the  day.  and  we 
can  almost  say  all  of  them,  rather  than  this.  Its 
great  value  consists  in  its  judicious  and  admirable 
selections  from  the  foreign  and  domestic  magazines. 
To  take  all  or  a  part  of  the  journals,  monthly  or 
quarterly,  which  are  issued  from  the  teeming  press, 
requires  a  sum  which  few  persons  can  afford  ;  but 
in  the  Living  Age  may  be  found  the  cream  and 
spirit  of  all,  at  the  low  price  of  $6.00  a  year,  or 
12£  cents  a  single  number.  It  is  published  weekly 
at  No.  165  Tremont  street,  Boston.  We  consider 
it  the  cheapest  and  the  best  work  of  its  kind  pub- 
lished in  the  United  States,  and  have  no  knowledge 
of  its  superior  anywhere. 


,  33ranUon,  Vt.—  We  rank  this 
remarkably  comprehensive  publication,  in  value  to 
the  individual  reader,  far  above  any  other  periodi- 
cal in  existence.  Indeed,  it  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  record  this  as  a  matter  of  private  opinion  ;  it 
would  seem  that  no  two  opinions  could  exist  re- 
specting it,  among  those  who  have  but  glanced  at 
its  plan  and  character.  It  were  not  too  much  to 
say  that  no  other  three  periodicals  in  Europe  and 
America  can  possibly  combine  the  richly  diversified 
attractions  of  this  compendium  of  what  is  best  in 
all.  Indeed,  if  one  had  access  to  all  the  first-class 
periodicals  in  the  English  tongue,  it  would  still  be 
a  marvellously  profitable  bargain  (supposing  his 
time  to  be  worth  anything)  could  he  employ  a  man 
of  Mr.  Littell's  judicious  taste,  for  six  dollars  a 
year(!)  to  select  and  mark  for  him  as  many  excel- 
lent things  weekly,  as  the  Living  Age  presents,  at 
that  price  —  especially  if,  as  is  the  case  with  most 
men,  that  amount  were  all  he  could  possibly  under- 
take to  read  ! 

In  the  Living  Age  we  have  never  failed  to  recog- 
nize the  fine  gold  of  the  British  Quarterly  Reviews, 
extracted  with  unerring  taste,  together  with  gems 
from  a  host  of  less  known,  though  scarcely  lesser, 
lights  of  literature,  which  irradiate  the  circles  of 
culture  throughout  the  three  kingdoms  —  such  as 
Chambers'  Journal,  Tait's,  Fraser's,  Sharp's,  and 
the  Dublin  University,  Magazines.  Nor  are  the 
best  productions  of  the  Daily  Newspaper  Press,  in 
our  own  country  and  in  Europe,  denied  a  place  in 
this  all-embracing  literary  banquet. 

Before  proceeding  to  quote  a  few  passages  from 
the  Prospectus  of  the  work,  we  will  add,  for  the 
information  and  wonder  of  our  readers,  that  as  each 
number  contains  48  pages  (each  page  equal  to  a 
column  of  our  paper)  it  is  therefore  equal  to  a 
monthly  magazine  of  208  pages  !  (that  is,  to  three 
of  the  largest  sized  American  ornamental  maga- 
zines,) and  makes  in  one  year  a  book  (or  books) 
containing  2,496  pages,  octavo  ! 

Thus,  as  to  cheapness  —  you  get,  for  one  dollar  and 
a  half,  the  bulk  of  a  three  dollar  magazine,  in  the 
BEST  of  the  current  literature  of  the  English  tongue, 
and  upwards  in  the  same  proportion.  Again.  — 
We  take  now  and  then  a  peculiarly  rich  and  rare 
number  of  this  always  unapproachable  publication, 
as  the  text  of  an  encomium  w*»  could  never  tire  of 
impressing  upon  our  readers.  The  number  for  the 
week  ending  May  26th,  furnishes  eminently  one  of 
these  fit  occasion*.  It  contains  as  its  chief  attrac- 
tions, among  many  others  nameless,  the  Poem  from 
Eraser's  Magazine  which  we  place  on  eur  last  page 


and  invite  all  true  lovers  of  poetry  to  enjoy  at  leis 
ure  as  one  of  the  most  genuine  things,  in  its  touch- 
ing way,  that  the  more  immediate  day  furnishes  us : 
a  Tale  from  Bentley,  which  with  leave  of  Provi- 
dence we  will  not  fail  to  treat  our  readers  to  next 
week,  and  which  will  touch  with  rare  delight  and 
instruction  every  heart  endowed  with  the  noblei 
human  feelings;  "The  Palace  of  Marly,"  trans- 
lated from  the  French  Musie  de.s  Families,  which, 
like  its  predecessor  from  the  same  source,  and  of 
the  same  type,  "  The  Palace  of  Fontainbleau" — is 
rich  in  historical  amusement  and  instruction  ;  and 
several  short  poems  of  great  merit,  with  Travels, 
History,  European  politics,  &c.,  as  usual. 

Possibly  to  some  it  may  seem  to  require,  to  make 
a  "  Living  Age,"  nothing  more  than  an  avalanche 
of  all  the  great  periodicals  of  tho  world,  such  as  Mr. 
Littell  brings  into  his  office  by  every  steamer.  No 
mistake,  however,  could  be  more  absurd.  A  recent 
attempt  is  now  going  forward,  with  signal  unsuc- 
cess,  to  imitate  the  design  of  the  Living  Age,  by  a 
young  man  of  some  literary  note  in  N.  Y.  The 
exquisite  TASTE  which  makes  the  compend  edited  by 
Mr.  Littell  almost  a  perfect  eclecticism  of  the  lit- 
erature of  the  age,  has  not  been  imitated,  nor  can 
it  easily  be,  however  his  general  idea  may  be  ap- 
propriated by  others.  We  draw  this  contrast,  not 
from  any  enmity,  or  want  of  respect,  towards  the 
truly  excellent  periodical  alluded  to  :  but  because 
we  prefer  to  sustain  the  original  and  immeasurably 
superior  Eclectic  Weekly,  in  its  due  position  before 
the  public,  so  far  as  our  slight  influence  extends. 

(EolonCjation  ffieralB. — Littell's  Living  A.ge 
continues  to  furnish  its  usual  variety  of  instructive 
and  seasonable  articles,  adapted  to  the  mental  wants 
of  all  classes  of  readers.  In  nearly  every  number, 
and  let  it  be  remembered  that  every  week  presents 
a  fresh  one,  there  is  a  leading  paper  of  pith  and 
moment  on  some  subject  of  history,  or  of  biogra- 
phy, or  of  literary  criticism  and  research,  accom- 
panied with  shorter  articles  on  the  engrossing 
themes  of  the  day;  whether  they  be  political,  or 
illustrative  of  practical  science  and  the  arts.  In 
the  department  of  what  is  more  commonly  spoken 
of  as  light  reading,  we  meet  with  a  fair  proportion 
of  tales,  poetry,  and  amusing  satire.  Again. — We 
are  glad,  after  an  interruption  of  several  months, 
by  the  misapprehension  of  an  agent,  to  renew  our 
intercourse  with  this  ever  pleasant  and  instructive 
periodical,  of  the  fortunes  of  which  we  had  been 
in  ignorance,  during  the  greater  part  of  this  time. 

The  Living  Age  is,  we  are  glad  to  see,  con 
tinued  in  the  same  spirit  of  judicious  selection, 
amid  a  wide  range  that  includes  all  the  prominett 
topics  which  interest  mankind,  viz.,  general  poli- 
tics, social  progress,  literature,  and  science, — 
the  movements  and  attractions  and  repulsions  of 
governments  and  people,  the  workings  of  genius 
and  the  spread  of  knowledge  by  commerce, 
travel  and  missionary  enterprise.  We  see  in  its 
pages  all  that  Europe  is  doing,  from  the  protests 
against  the  incorporation  of  Cracow,  and  the  cor- 
respondence respecting  the  Montpensier  marriage, 
down  to  the  comicalities  of  Mrs.  Perkin's  Ball, 
with  the  intermediate  rests  for  retrospective  histo- 
ry, biography,  and  tales. 

N.  3T.  3&ecofUer. — Conducted  on  a  most  com- 
prehensive plan;  and  with  admirable  judgment  and 
taste,  it  is  worthy  of  all  the  commendations  which 
it  has  received,  and  all  the  patronage  which  it 
has  won. 


NOTICES  OF   LITTELL'S   LiHNG  AGE. 


N  ¥.  JQome  journal.  —  This,  in  our  opinion, 
is  the  hest  publication  of  its  kind  in  the  world. 
Six  dollars  a  year  could  not,  by  any  possibility,  be 
better  expended  than  in  the  purchase  of  this  most 
interesting  and  valuable  periodical.  Again.  —  It 
answers,  in  a  measure,  the  purpose  of  an  Annual 
Register.  Besides  the  literary  treat  it  so  punctu- 
ally affords,  w«  are  pleased  to  find  in  its^  columns 
the  most  important  articles  on  the  political  affairs 
of  Europe,  extracted  from  foreign  and  domestic 
journals.  The  pithy  communications  to  the  Lon- 
don Examiner,  and  the  best  descriptive  letters  from 
Americans  abroad  to  journals  at  home,  find  a  place 
beside  the  stately  lucubrations  of  the  Quarterly,  and 
the  vivacious  genialities  of  the  Magazines.  Again.  — 
At  this  season,  when  the  reading  public  are  deciding 
upon  their  subscriptions  to  periodical  literature,  for 
the  ensuing  year,  we  feel  it  incumbent  upon  us  to 
call  special  attention  to  "  LitteWs  Living  Age."  It 
appears  with  rare  punctuality,  and  is  filled  with  the 
spice  of  the  English  journals,  and  the  articles  de- 
voted to  the  prominent  topics  of  the  day  ;  the  best 
reviews,  tales,  essays,  poems,  and  sketches.  Its 
value  is  much  enhanced  by  the  judicious  selections 
from  the  American  press.  There  is  no  single 
work  published  which  is  so  calculated  to  inform 
and  entertain  readers  with  the  spirit  of  the  age  — 
critical,  political,  and  literary.  The  management 
of  the  work  has  been  highly  approved  by  all  our 
leading  men. 

American,  SSPatetfeurs,  <£onn,  —  This  work  has 
so  long  maintained  a  conspicuous  position  in  the 
current  literature  of  the  day,  that  it  requires  only 
to  be  known,  to  be  valued.  It  is  composed  of  a 
judicious  selection  from  all  the  foreign  periodicals 
of  high  standing,  thus  giving  the  very  spirit  of  the 
whole  in  a  small  and  readable  compass  for  a  com- 

Earatively  small  sum.     The  last  number  contains 
jading  articles  from  ten  different  magazines,  be- 
sides some  eight  minor  selections. 

W.  Y.  Commercial  ^Dbetttser.  —  For  miscel- 
laneous reading,  there  are  few  if  any  periodicals 
which  compete  with  the  Living  Age. 


,  tESJestffelD,  W.  "£".  —  It  is  a  glean- 
ing of  the  best  articles  of  the  foreign  magazines. 
It  is  a  history  of  the  literary  world  from  week  to 
week.  You  see  in  it  what  has  tickled  the  fancy 
of  the  Parisian  within  a  month.  The  article  that 
has  been  the  theme  of  English  "  table  talk,"  or 
that  has  stirred  the  German  mind  from  the  stagna- 
tion of  its  excessive  abstractions  to  healthful  vigor, 
within  a  few  weeks  past,  is  before  you  in  the  Age. 

V!.  ST.  <£{)rtstian  inquirer.  —  Rich  as  ever  ; 
containing  the  best  things  that  have  been  said  on 
the  most  interesting  topics  of  the  day. 

^Journal,  Cabana,  W.  "£.  —  We  have  received 
the  first  two  January  numbers  of  this  very  valuable 
work.  Though  all  that  we  have  ever  owned,  they 
are  not  all  that  we  have  ever  read  and  admired. 
LittelPs  Living  Age  has  established  for  itself  a 
reputation  of  which  its  proprietors  may  be  justly 
proud  —  that  of  being  the  best  reprint  of  sound  and 
readable  literature  published  in  the  country. 

33aUw  &lJbertts«?t,  "Netoavfc,  W.  35.—  It  repro- 
duces in  weekly  inbtalments  of  some  50  pages  much 
of  the  most  valuable  matter  of  the  foreign  periodi- 
cals. together  with  a  general  survey  of  the  course 


of  matters  and  things  at  home.  Its  selections  indi 
cate  good  taste,  and  among  the  weekly  publications 
of  the  country  we  know  of  no  one  that  has  so  many 
attractions  for  readers  who  desire  to  keep  an  eye 
upon  the  current  literature  of  the  day.  It  is  well 
printed  in  octavo  form,  and  paged  for  binding. 

ffiajette,  33urltnjjton,  N.  $.  —  It  maintains,  with 
unswerving  interest,  its  very  high  character.  The 
amount  of  choice  reading  which  it  supplies  weekly, 
from  the  principal  newspapers,  magazines,  and  re- 
views, in  this  country  and  Europe,  is  really  im- 
mense. 

Christian  ffijjronicle,  ^tyila.  —  We  sincerely 
pity  any  of  our  readers  whose  limited  intellects  or 
purses  debar  them  from  the  pleasure  of  this  weekly 
visitant.  We  should  feel  lost  without  it.  It  is 
true  to  its  high  aims,  and  republishes  the  best  con- 
tributions to  foreign  periodical  literature.  A  single 
number  is  oftentimes  worth  the  annual  subscription. 


journal,  ^tttslmvsJ),  $a.  —  Of  all  the 
weekly  publications  in  the  United  States,  LiltelVs 
Living  Age  stands  at  the  head.  It  is  an  old  pub- 
lication ;  and  affords  to  its  readers  the  cream  of  all 
the  scientific,  literary,  and  political  publications, 
domestic  and  foreign.  Such  a  work  cannot  fail  to 
meet  with  the  approbation  of  every  lover  of  science, 
literature,  and  politics. 

38anner  of  t&e  (Kross,  $J)tla.  —  This  admirable 
collection  of  articles,  from  the  best  of  periodicals, 
continues  to  sustain  its  high  character.  We  always 
receive  it  with  pleasure.  There  is  great  judgment 
shown  in  the  selection  of  articles,  so  as  to  mingle 
instruction  and  entertainment. 


CSHn  Chester,  Vs.  —  This  work 
offers  renewed  attractions  for  the  present  year,  con- 
taining as  it  does  the  choicest  selections  from  the 
American  press,  and  the  spice  of  all  the  foreign 
magazines  and  quarterlies  known  to  the  literary 
world  at  large.  To  statesmen,  divines,  lawyers, 
physicians  ;  to  men  of  business  and  men  of  leisure  ; 
to  the  office  and  the  hearth-side,  it  presents  itself 
with  equal  interest.  In  this  age  of  cheap  litera- 
ture, a  work  which  girds  itself  firmly  and  resolutely 
against  the  influx  of  what  is  depraved  and  vicious 
in  morals,  commends  a  notice  from  a  respectable 
and  reading  community,  without  further  comment. 
An  immoral  and  sensual  appetite  will  meet  with 
no  gratification  from  a  perusal  of  its  pages  ;  its 
aspirations  seek  to  cater  for  no  such  depraved  taste. 
We  predict  for  it,  from  its  large  and  invaluable 
collection  of  biography,  voyages,  travels,  history, 
and  other  substantial  matter,  the  popularity  which 
it  eminently  deserves.  That  which  seeks  to  ele- 
vate the  standard  of  literary  worth,  demands  encour- 
agement ;  the  floods  of  cheap  and  valueless  produc- 
tions which  have  deluged  this  country  for  past  years, 
have,  by  working  their  own  cure,  awakened  an 
appreciation  of  a  better  order  of  literature. 

©firistfan  ©bserber,  ${>UaDel})J)fa.  —  It  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and  valuable  publications  of 
the  day.  It  is  a  literary  repository,  richly  and 
amply  filled  with  the  most  readable  articles  in  the 
reviews  and  journals  of  Europe.  Being  issued 
every  week,  it  keeps  pace  with  the  movements  of 
the  world,  and  exhibits  the  living,  restless  spirit  of 
the  age,  as  developed  in  its  literature,  science,  com- 
merce, politics,  and  in  the  various  arts  of  life. 

s 


NOTICES  OF  LITTELL'S   LIVING  AGE. 


fflfajette,  Bober,  T*T.  3£}.  —  Notwithstanding  the 
wide  range  over  which  the  Living  Age  has  run  in 
its  grasp  of  materials,  it  still  keeps  up  an  unflagging 
interest,  and  richly  merits  the  popularity  it  has 
attained. 


35bcninjj  CSajette.  —  In  closing  our  liter- 
ary labors  for  this  year  there  is  one  publication 
which  merits  a  notice  ;  and  all  our  readers  who 
have  had  an  opportunity  of  judging  will  agree  with 
us  when  we  say  that  Litteirs  Living  Age  is  worthy 
of  all  praise.  We  have  from  time  to  time  acknowl- 
edged the  receipts  of  the  weekly  numbers  ;  but 
such  a  brief  mention  conveys  no  idea  to  a  stranger 
of  the  value  of  this  publication.  It  not  only  con- 
tains the  cream  of  foreign  publications,  but  the 
very  essence,  the  very  marrow,  of  eminent  English 
literature,  and  a  person  who  reads  it  will  obtain  as 
correct  an  idea  of  the  spirit  of  the  times,  both  so- 
c-ially  and  politically,  as  if  he  became  the  veriest 
book-worm,  and  possessed  a  supernatural  power 
of  reading  every  line  that  emanates  from  the  press. 
It  affords  us  pleasure  to  hear  of  the  success  of 
this  issue.  It  is  creditable  to  our  citizens  that  it  is 
supported  by  them,  and  we  most  sincerely  wish 
that  its  proprietor  may  be  the  receiver  of  a  golden 
harvest,  for  he  is  a  skilful  husbandman,  growing 
good  fruit,  from  well-eelected  stock. 

JFreemnn,  (Koncortt,  jfWs.  —  We  wish  the  Living 
Age  could  take  the  place  of  the  corrupting  trash 
which  is  poured  forth  in  such  unceasing  torrents, 
and  is  perverting  taste  and  endangering  the  princi- 
ples of  our  youth. 

N.  U.  SEfasJjtnfltom'an,  Uostott.  —  Amid  the 
multitudinous  issues  that  daily  come  from  the  press, 
which  have  their  brief  hour  and  are  laid  aside,  the 
work  above  announced  stands  conspicuous  as  a 
notable  exception  to  casual  interest  or  speedy  neg- 
lect. Like  the  evergreen  of  winter,  while  all 
around  has  withered  and  perished,  its  perennial 
freshness  gladdens  and  softens  the  asperities  of  the 
general  deartn. 

We  wish  to  call  the  attention  of  the  large  class 
of  young  men  in  our  community  to  the  merits  of 
this  work  —  to  point  out  to  them  the  vast  fund  of 
valuable  information  which  is  tendered  for  almost 
the  simple  asking.  We  know  of  no  publication  in 
the  whole  range  of  literature  which  presents  such 
facilities  for  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  In  its 
pages  we  find  the  products  of  the  first  minds  of  Eu- 
rope and  America.  The  reader  can,  at  will,  revel 
in  the  delights  of  romance,  follow  the  instructions 
if  the  historian,  trace  the  devious  ways  of  national 
politics,  grasp  the  discoveries  of  science,  or  cull 
flowers  from  the  ever-teeming  fields  of  popular 
literature.  There  is  no  department  of  human  lore 
which  does  not  here  open  its  lecture-room  —  no 
teacher  of  the  mysteries  of  nature  that  does  not 
here  present  his  inculcations.  It  is,  therefore,  one 
of  the  most  valuable  compilations  of  the  age,  and 
should  be  the  text-book  of  all. 

To  the  thousands  of  young  men  in  this  country 
who  are  coming  upon  the  stage  of  active  usefulness, 
whose  desire  is  to  possess  themselves  of  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  what  is  transpiring  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  what  publication  is  more  fitted  for 
their  peculiar  position  1  There  is  none.  For  six 
dollars  a  year,  or  twelve-and-a-half  cents  weekly, 
can  this  great  boon  be  procured.  How  many  there 
are  who,  almost  daily,  foolishly  squander  more 
than  the  weekly  cost  of  this  work,  which,  if  in- 


vested in  the  way  we  suggest,  would  insure  them 
a  rare  treasure-house  of  delight,  entertainment, 
and  instruction  !  Young  men,  think  of  the  oppor- 
tunity thus  offered. 

3£Uj)tU)ltcan,  W.  SSnDjjetoater,  $&a.—  We  are 
exceedingly  giad  to  see  this  most  valuable  of  maga- 
zines on  our  table.  What  the  reviews  are  to  liter- 
ature in  general,  the  Living  Age  is  to  the  reviews 
—  a  selection  of  the  choice  bits,  the  refined  essence 
of  the  leading  European  and  American  journals. 

^Journal,  iJrobiDence,  It.  K.  —  No  periodical  is 
more  welcome  than  this,  which  sustains  the  high 
character  it  has  so  long  enjoyed  for  the  variety  and 
excellence  of  its  selections.  To  those  who  are  un- 
able to  take  but  a  single  periodical,  LittelVs  Living 
Age  is  the  best,  as  it  culls  the  choicest  papers  on 
all  subjects,  from  the  leading  reviews  and  maga- 
zines of  England.  It  also  contains  many  smaller 
articles  selected  from  the  newspaper  press  of  the 
United  States. 


f£s.)  ©bserber.  —  We  renew  our 
recommendation  of  the  work  to  such  of  our  readers 
as  desire  to  possess  the  best  literary  productions  of 
our  time.  The  work  is  published  in  weekly  parts 
of  48  large  two-column  pages,  making  four  vol- 
umes, of  over  600  pages  each,  per  year.  Its  con- 
tents are  principally  derived  from  the  periodicals 
of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  They  embrace 
those  reviews  which  form  the  great  staple  of  the 
quarterlies  —  sparkling  essays  —  incidents  of  adven- 
ture in  all  climes  —  speculations  on  passing  political 
events  —  notices  of,  and  extracts  from,  new  books  — 
tales,  poetry,  witticisms,  &c.  In  short,  the  selec- 
tions are  so  judiciously  made,  that  the  "  Living 
Age"  is  adapted  to  all  who  desire  to  keep  informed 
of  the  movements  of  the  period  —  to  professional  and 
business  men  —  and  it  is  also  attractive  and  useful 
to  women  and  children.  It  would  be  a  "  continual 
feast"  for  every  family,  gratifying  the  mental  and 
moral  appetite  ;  and  one  so  ample  as  to  ensure  the 
neglect  of  much  that  is  bad  in  taste  and  vicious  in 
morals,  but  which,  in  this  day  of  cheap  publica- 
tions, can  be  guarded  against  only  by  furnishing  a 
sufficient  supply  of  a  healthy  character.  Add  to 
the  foregoing,  that  the  work  possesses  more  than  a 
temporary  interest  —  that  its  value  is  permanent  — 
that  it  can  be  got  bound  for  50  cents  per  volume, 
and  thus  the  subscriber  can  make  a  rich  addition 
to  his  library  each  year. 

Datl»  ^Tribune,  Worcester,  i&s.  —  Of  course  it 
needs  no  comment  from  us,  for  every  intelligent 
person  will  concur  with  us,  when  we  say,  that  for 
a  deep  and  solid  reasoning  in  its  articles,  a  purely 
literary  and  scientific  work,  it  stands  in  the  first 
rank  of  the  literary  works  of  the  day. 

JSjrcelsfor,  Wetoburflft,  W.  3T.  —  The  Living  Age 
we  have  often  brought  to  the  notice  of  our  readers  ; 
and,  for  their  good,  we  cannot  do  it  too  often.  It  is 
conducted  upon  the  plan  of  Littell's  Museum,  which 
long  enjoyed  an  enviable  popularity.  It  contains 
the  very  cream  of  the  foreign  literature  which  is 
worth  republication  ;  and  sprinkles  that  with  choice 
articles  from  able  native  pens.  The  British  reviews 
are  very  expensive  ;  and,  after  all,  much  of  their 
contents  is  not  adapted  to  the  tastes  or  wants  of 
American  readers.  Litteirs  Living  Age  repub- 
hshes  the  best  of  the  articles  from  the  reviews  and 
all  the  British  periodicals  of  lighter  cast. 
9 


NOTICES  OF  LITTELL'S   LIVING  AGE. 


HonOon  (Ct.)  Democrat.  —  This  is  one 
of  the  most  popular,  most  useful,  and  most  exten- 
sively read  periodicals  of  the  present  day.  Unlike 
many  of  the  monthlies  that  are  published,  and  im- 
posed upon  the  community,  this  work  abounds  with 
useful  and  interesting-  matter,  bringing  the  past  as 
well  as  the  present  age  before  us  in  full  review, 
and  bearing  rich  instruction,  in  so  interesting  a 
manner,  that  no  one  can  read  without  pleasure  and 
profit.  It  has  received  the  highest  encomiums  of 
the  first  men  of  the  age. 

ST&e  Calendar,  ?8artfortr,  <£t.  —  It  is  what  its 
name  implies,  and  no  one  who  reads  it  constantly 
can  fail  to  keep  himself  well  informed  about  both 
the  thought  and  the  action  of  this  stirring  age  of 
ours.  We  know  from  experience  how  welcome  a 
visitor  it  has  proved  in  our  family,  and  how  ear- 
nestly it  has  been  inquired  after  whenever  it  has 
failed  to  make  its  appearance  on  its  accustomed 
day. 

W.  3T.  (Kajette  anO  STtmes.  —  It  is  copiously 
supplied  with  judicious  selections  from  the  first 
reviews  and  periodicals  of  both  the  old  and  the  new 
world.  For  a  comprehensive  summary  of  the  liter- 
ature of  the  day,  this  publication  is  without  an 
equal,  and  as  such  it  deserves  all  encouragement. 

W.  Y.  ffiommerctal  &obertlser.  —  The  selec- 
tions from  foreign  and  domestic  periodicals,  of 
which  this  work  is  wholly  composed,  are  discrim- 
inatingly made,  and  in  no  publication  can  more 
good  reading  be  found  in  a  similar  space.  Its  issue 
in  weekly  numbers,  too,  we  think  a  decided  im- 
provement upon  the  monthly  plan  of  publication. 


ana  audits'  SQonte  journal,  7"f.  Y.— 
In  our  various  notices  of  periodical  literature,  we 
have  spoken  less  frequently  than  our  sense  of  jus- 
tice prompted,  of  "LITTELL'S  LIVING  AGE." 
The  frequent  visits  of  this  admirable  selection  from 
foreign  journals,  its  wise  choice  of  the  best  articles 
and  judicious  intermixture  of  American  literary 
and  biographical  data,  together  with  its  low  price, 
render  it  the  most  valuable  and  attractive  work  for 
the  man  of  literary  taste,  political  inquiry  and 
habitual  economy,  (both  of  time  and  money,)  now 
published  in  the  United  States.  It  is  literally  the 
cream  of  the  English  reviews  and  magazines, 
served  up  with  punctuality,  and  on  the  fairest  im- 
aginable terms. 

Donlestoum  ($)a.)  Democrat.  —  Of  all  the  liter- 
ary publications  in  our  country  —  and  they  are 
almost  as  numerous  as  the  sands  upon  the  sea- 
shore —  we  consider  the  Living  Age  the  most  valu- 
able. It  furnishes  weekly  a  vast  amount  of  the 
very  cream  of  foreign  literature,  carefully  selected 
from  sterling  foreign  publications. 


^Temperance  Banner,  Baltimore,  J£tr.  —  This 
standard  weekly  continues  to  maintain  its  position 
at  the  head  of  the  serial  publications  of  this  country. 
It  embraces  articles  on  literature,  science,  art,  mo- 
rality, and  religion,  culled  wjth  great  care  and 
discreet  judgment,  from  the  best  fountains  of 
Europe  and  America.  It  is  in  itself  an  invaluable 
library,  combining,  in  substance,  the  information 
and  literature  of  the  English  language. 

2Tvue  Democrat,  ClebelanD,  <E>J)io.  —  The  very 
embodiment  of  the  best  spirit  of  the  living  litera- 


ture of  our  day.  We  have  books  that  are  books, 
and  this  is  one  of  them.  The  scholars  and  ripa 
men  of  our  country  regard  LitteWs  Living  Age  as 
a  work  essential  to  them,  and  surely  we  need  not 
add  that  it  must  be  useful  to  every  one  who  will 
read  it. 

State  ffiajette,  J8ontjjomer2,  &!«.—  The 
work  is  unlike  any  other  literary  publication  in 
the  country,  it  being  a  reprint  of  all  the  choice 
articles  of  the  foreign  periodicals  —  not  of  the  Quar- 
terlies only,  but  also  of  the  Monthlies,  Weeklies 
and  Dailies,  as  well  as  articles  of  extraordinary 
interest  from  American  publications.  It  furnishes 
besides  original  contributions  from  able  writers  as 
foreign  correspondents. 

Mr.  Littell  has  been  long  connected  with  our 
periodical  press,  and  is  extensively  known  as  a 
judicious  and  tasteful  caterer  to  the  wants  of  the 
literary  community  ;  and  we  know  of  no  publica- 
tion of  a  similar  character  whatever  that  we  con- 
sider equal  to  it  in  interest  and  value,  and  the 
privation  of  which  we  should  esteem  so  material 
a  loss. 

fSramtnev,  3Loutsbille,  Sj.  —  If  we  were  pro- 
hibited from  reading  more  than  one  periodical,  we 
should  not  feel  much  disposed  to  complain  of  the 
prohibition,  if  we  were  permitted  to  select  Littell's 
Living  Age.  It  is  composed  of  the  best  articles 
of  the  best  periodicals  ;  and  is  as  much  superior  to 
any  one  of  them  as  the  master-piece  of  the  Grecian 
artist  was  to  any  one  of  the  beautiful  women  who 
furnished  each  some  particular  charm  for  the  repre 
sentation  of  perfect  beauty.  We  are  delighted 
with  each  number  as  it  comes  to  us.  So  highly 
have  we  been  pleased  with  the  work  that  we  have 
purchased  all  the  back  volumes  for  the  use  of  oui 
family. 

33anner,  (Earrolton,  SU.—  A  work  which  we 
cordially  recommend  to  every  family  for  its  healthy 
moral  tone,  its  large  collection  of  biography,  his- 
tory, voyages,  and  travels;  its  notices  of  recent 
and  passing  events  ;  besides  its  rich  provision  for 
the  imagination.  It  is  a  desirable  work  for  all  who 
wish  to  keep  themselves  informed  of  the  progress 
of  the  present  age,  in  its  political  and  moral 
bearing. 

Bails  &Uberttser,  UatJ),  j!8e.—  Each  weekly 
number  contains  a  large  amount  of  matter,  consist- 
ing of  selections  of  the  most  valuable  portions  of 
the  whole  literature  of  the  age.  Those  who  can 
afford  only  a  limited  yearly  addition  to  their  libra- 
ries should  not  hesitate  to  subscribe  for  this  work. 
It  has  no  embellishments,  but  its  real  worth  is 
greater  than  that  of  all  the  other  literary  magazines 
in  the  country  put  together. 


Democrat,  ffioncorB,  W.  2$.  — 
Each  number  contains  forty-eight  pages  of  the 
choicest  poetical  and  prose  articles  to  be  found  in 
the  periodicals  of  Europe  and  America.  The  se- 
lections are  uniformly  made  with  great  judgment 
and  care,  making,  in  our  estimation,  the  most 
valuable,  as  well  as  the  cheapest,  magazine  in  the 
United  States.  Again.  —  The  editor  possesses 
rare  judgment  in  "  sifting  the  wheat"  from  the 
great  mass  of  current  Foreign  Literature,  and 
presenting  to  the  American  public  only  such  as 
is  worthy  to  work  and  live  in  the  mind  of  the 
age. 

10 


NOTICES  OF  LITTELL'S   LIVING  AGE. 


Uoston  ISost  --No  person  can  do  better,  who 
wishes  to  keep  cognizant  of  the  literature  and  grea 
events  of  the  day,  than  to  commence  1850  by  sub- 
scribing for  this  cheap  and  valuable  work. 

Uoston  iEbening  CKajette. — Always  excellent. 
We  could  write  a  column  in  its  praise. 

33oston  3J)ati)ftnHer. — Littell's  Living  Age  is 
rightly  named,  because  it  gives  us,  not  the  mouldy 
literature  of  past  ages,  but  the  fresh,  vigorous  and 
healthy  productions  of  the  men  of  to-day. 

American  ffiafiinet,  Boston.— This  truly  valu- 
able publication  is  ever  welcome.  The  editor  is  as 
one  watching  the  tide  of  popular  reading,  and  who 
thrusts  down  his  hand  when  something  rich  and 
rare  floats  along,  and  makes  it  a  part  and  parcel  of 
the  "  age." 

Hell)  SSnjjIanOer,  Boston. —It  bears  indubitable 
indications  of  the  valued  tact  and  nice  discrimina- 
tion of  its  conductor,  Mr.  Littell.  Again. — Need 
we  again  commend  this  super-excellent  work  to 
our  readers  ?  Not,  perhaps,  for  its  necessities  ;  for 
a  generous  patronage,  and  the  universal  commenda- 
tion of  the  press,  render  such  a  task  superfluous. 
But  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  young  men  of 
our  land  to  its  merits  we  will  gladly  speak  of  it 
weekly.  There  is  no  work  in  this  country  which, 
in  so  convenient  a  compass,  and  at  so  cheap  a  rate, 
furnishes  a  more  varied,  judicious  or  valuable  read- 
ing to  the  knowledge-seeking  student.  Five  dol- 
lars each  to  a  club  of  four  will  secure  this  treasure 
for  one  year.  Again. — It  must  be  gratifying  to 
the  publishers  of  this  work,  to  notice  that  selec- 
tions from  its  pages  are  travelling  the  round  of  the 
press  of  this  country — a  favorable  comment  on  its 
popular  cast.  It  has  been  well  said  that  he  who 
makes  an  able  extract  renders  a  service  equivalent 
to  that  of  one  who  writes  a  good  article — and  this 
merit  is  peculiarly  that  of  the  conductor  of  the 
Age.  Again. — We  can  with  truth  endorse  a 
contemporary,  who  says  this  celebrated  weekly 
holds  on  its  unrivalled  course  vigorously,  bearing 
its  rich  freight  of  literary  wares,  gathered  from 
every  civilized  region,  to  the  "  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth."  Our  experience  has  taught  us  that, 
with  the  Living  Age,  we  have  no  need  of  the 
famous  British  Quarterlies,  nor  of  most  of  the 
valuable  productions  of  the  British  periodical  press. 
Again. — What  do  you  read,  good  sir?  Science, 
history,  politics,  poetry,  or  romance?  Have  the 
Age,  then,  by  all  means.  To  be  without  it,  exist- 
ence loses  much  of  its  delights — the  mind  half  its 
enjoyment.  We  speak  "  by  the  book." 

SBostou  Sfouvnal.— The  accumulation  of  new 
/jooks  on  almost  all  subjects,  has  become  so  rapid 
of  late,  that  no  man,  even  by  incessant  reading 
with  out,  sleep  or  rest,  if  possible,  could  wade 
through  but  a  small  portion  of  them.  They  shower 
down  upon  us  from  the  sky  ;  they  come  up  from 
he  mighty  deep ;  they  tumble  upon  us  from  the 
heights  of  Parnassus  ;  they  rush  upon  us  as  mon- 
sters from  Domdaniel  caverns,  and  they  spread 
around  us  in  legions  from  Cyprian  temples.  What, 
then,  shall  we  read  1  What  new  work,  worth  the 
precious  hours  of  a  fugitive  existence,  whether  on 
science,  history,  poetry  or  romance,  shall  we  select? 
— The  impartial  Reviews  and  judicious  Criticisms 
of  the  day  will  answer.  But  they  are  also  many, 
and  are  becoming  voluminous.  On  this  account 
the  plan  and  conduct  of  LITTELL'S  LIVING  AGE 
have  met  with  such  general  approbation  and  patron- 
age/ It  skims  the  cream  of  Reviews.  It  supplies 
11 


|  the  wants  of  a  reading  community,  and  like  a 
Cicerone  regulates  the  taste,  and  like  a  guide-board 
points  out  the  way,  in  making  discreet  selections  ; 
or  in  some  cases  serves  to  warn  us  from  a  waste  of 
time,  in  the  perusal  of  a  book,  however  popular 
—  "A  Stranger  in  Boston." 

(ffjjricttan  deflector,  JSoston.  —  This  sterling 
cosmopolite  continues  to  send  out  its  gatherings* 
from  the  standard  periodical  literature  of  the  old 
world  and  new.  It  has  reached  a  vigorous  man- 
hood, and  grows  wiser  and  better  as  it  grows  older. 
The  contents  are  rich  and  varied.  The  selections 
indicate  an  excellent  taste  and  good  judgment. 
The  circulation  of  this  periodical  keeps  on  rapidly 
increasin. 


.Saturtraij  Gambler.  —  The  Living  Age 
is  too  well  known  to  the  American  public  to  need 
any  eulogium  at  our  hands.      The  standing  and 
reputation  which  it  has  attained  are  its  best  recom 
mendation. 

Dortlantt  (,f&e.)  STranscujpt.—  A  man  cannot 
be  said  to  live,  in  his  age  if  he  do  not  keep  himself 
informed  of  the  course  of  its  current  of  thought 
and  action.  And  we  verily  believe  that  he  can  do 
this  in  no  way  so  readily  and  so  cheaply  as  by  sub- 
scribing for  the  Living  Age.  This  publication  is 
no  longer  an  experiment  ;  it  is  a  fixed  fact.  And 
as  a  fact,  it  is  doing  more  for  the  spread  of  know  - 
edge  among  the  people,  than  most  men  imagine. 
It  gives  us  all  that  is  worth  knowing  in  the  foreign 
quarterlies  and  monthlies,  —  which  are  themselves 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  —  and 
the  most  valuable  of  the  many  contributions  to  our 
own  current  literature.  Much  of  the  space  in  the 
number  before  us  is  devoted  to  articles  of  Ameri- 
can origin,  and  we  think  this  feature  of  the  Living 
Age  will  commend  it  still  more  to  our  people.  We 
say  to  all  who  would  cultivate  an  acquaintance  with 
the  great  minds  of  the  old  and  the  new  worlds, 
subscribe  for  the  Living  Age. 

fflfajette,  25ast  STtjomaston,  |&e.—  It  is  uni- 
"ormly  filled  with  a  variety  of  articles  selected  from 
the  leading  European  monthlies,  and  there  is  no 
;aste,  however  various  or  exacting,  that  will  fail  to 
ind  in  each  number,  at  least  one  article  fully  repay- 
'ng  the  cost  of  the  whole,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  never  contains  anything  which  can  be  styled 
objectionable.  We  could  name  a  hundred  articles 
scattered  through  the  last  year's  series,  which  havo 
afforded  us  much  interest  and  satisfaction,  and,  we 
lope,  at  the  same  time,  an  equal  share  of  profit. 
[t  is  always  rich  in  good  things,  arid  we  wish  it 
jreat  and  continued  prosperity. 


democrat,  ^erefiitl)   3Sri&flf,  W.  ?§.—  This 
work   is  acknowledged   to  be  the   freshest,  most 
refined,  and  best  literary  work  published,  while  its 
heapness  places  it  within  the  reach  of  all. 

irrasburn;  (Vt.)  (Sajette.  —  Preeminent  among 
weekly  publications  in  this  country,  stands  Littell's 
living  Age.  The  amount  of  matter  in  each  num- 
)er  is  nearly  equal  to  that  contained  in  the  foreign 
Juarterlies,  consisting  of  selections  from  all  the 
Reviews,  domestic  and  foreign,  as  well  as  from  the 
first  newspapers  in  either  hemispheres.  For  six 
dollars  a  year,  one  can  really  get,  in  this  publica- 
ion,  the  spirit  of  the  age,  literary  and  political. 

CSreen  i&otiritatn  JFmman,  jRflontpeUer,  Ut. 
—  Incomparably  the  best  of  the  kind  published  in 
America,  it  still  fully  holds  its  .own  in  the  varied 
nterest  and  richness  of  its  contents. 


NOTICES   OF  LITTELL'S   LIVING  AGE. 


Barnstable  (J8s.)  patriot.  —  This  republica- 
tion  is  one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  very  best,  reprint  of 
foreign  literature  which  is  offered  to  the  American 
public.  The  pages  of  this  valuable  magazine  are 
filled  with  judicious  selections  taken  chiefly  from 
the  oldest,  most  popular  and  talented  of  the  foreign 
periodicals  :  they  are  enriched  also  with  selections 
from  American  authors  and  miscellaneous  publica- 
tions, which  give  to  them  much  spirit  and  variety. 
It  is  a  synopsis  of  the  best  productions  of  many  of 
the  finest  transatlantic  writers  of  the  day,  and,  as 
representing  the  present  expression  and  progress 
of  European  and  American  literature,  it  is  a  com- 
pilation of  more  than  ordinary  or  transient  merit. 


of  Commerce,  Weto  Yorfc  Cittj.  — 
Its  contents  consist  for  the  most  part  of  articles 
extracted  from  the  foreign  periodicals  of  the  day  ; 
but  its  selections,  instead  of  being  confined  exclu- 
sively to  the  elaborate  essays  of  Quarterly  Reviews, 
embrace  within  their  range  the  lighter  literature  of 
the  "  Monthlies/'  and  even  of  the  most  valuable 
weekly  newspapers.  Occasionally,  too,  we  are 
pleased  to  notice  extracts  from  the  columns  of  lead- 
ing American  papers,  whose  editorials  are  fre- 
quently worthy  of  a  more  permanent  existence, 
than  can  be  secured  to  them  by  the  issues  of  an 
ephemeral  press.-  An  agreeable  variety  is  thus 
given  to  the  pages  of  Littell  ;  and  hence  it  becomes 
in  reality,  what  its  name  purports,  a  correct 
daguerreotype  of  the  living  age.  It  is,  at  once, 
"popular"  in  character,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
well  adapted  "  to  raise  the  standard  of  public 
taste." 


'  (17t.)  35aale.—  In  looking  over  its 
pages,  one  can  hardly  repress  a  feeling  of  amaze- 
ment at  the  amount,  variety  and  richness  of  its  con- 
tents. It  is  confined  to  no  particular  theme,  and  is 
bound  to  the  maintenance  of  no  exclusive  party, 
sect,  or  school  of  philosophy.  The  selections  are 
made  and  arranged  with  great  discrimination  ;  so 
happily  blending  the  grave  and  the  gay,  that  the 
reader,  no  matter  what  his  taste,  so  it  be  cultivated, 
will  find  much  to  commend.  It  contains  weekly 
copious  extracts  from  the  standard  foreign  reviews, 
magazines  and  newspapers,  culled  with  rare  taste 
and  judgment  by  the  industrious  editor,  thus  present- 
ing, in  a  condensed  form,  much  highly  interesting 
and  valuable  information,  to  which  many  might 
otherwise  be  denied  access.  Philosophy,  History, 
Biography,  Fiction,  and  Poetry,  each,  in  turn,  claim 
the  attention  of  the  delighted  reader.  We  know 
of  no  periodical  published  in  this  country,  possess- 
ing so  many  attractions  for  an  intelligent,  educated 
family. 


(lit.)  JB^lt.—LittelVs  Living 
Age  has  been  received,  and  read  with  much  inter- 
est and  profit  to  ourselves.'*  It  is  truly  a  valuable 
work.  Much  has  been  said  in  praise  of  this 
periodical,  and  we  can  assure  those  who  are  not 
familiar  with  it,  that  report  has  not  exaggerated  its 
merits. 


O^t.)  journal. — There  is  probably 
no  one  periodical  publication  in  the  world,  that 
contains  so  rich',  extensive,  and  valuable  a  variety 
of  contributions. 

American  Courier,  tyljilz. — We  really  think, 
if  "  our  million"  knew  the  peculiar  excellence 
of  "  LittelVs  Living  Age,"  its  terms,  &c.,  they 
woold  render  an  additional  printing  machine  neces- 
sary to  supply  the  demand. 
12 


Aunt's  iHercljants'  iHasajint.— Mr.  LittelJ 
the  editor  and  proprietor  of  this  work,  may  be> 
regarded  as  the  pioneer  in  re-producing  in  these 
United  States  the  choicest  literature  of  England. 
He  started  nearly,  if  not  quite,  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago,  the  first  journal  of  foreign  literature ; 
and  if  his  taste,  zeal,  and  industry  had  been  prop- 
erly appreciated,  he  would  (if  it  were  possible 
for  one  of  his  tireless  energy  and  activity)  have 
retired,  ere  this,  on  a  well  and  honestly  earned  for- 
tune. A  cotemporary,  C.  Edwards  Lester,  Esq., 
the  editor  of  the  "  Gallery  of  Illustrious  Ameri- 
cans," in  his  "  Fly-Leaf  of  Art  and  Criticism,'' 
pays  a  high  but  well  merited  tribute  to  Mr.  Littell 
and  his  "  Living  Age,"  which  we  take  great  pleas- 
ure in  transferring  to  the  pages  of  the  Merchants' 
Magazine,  with  our  unhesitating  assent  to  the  just- 
ness of  our  cotemporary's  criticism  : — 

"  LITTELL'S  LIVING  AGE. — This  best  of  all 
the  Eclectics  has  nearly  reached  its  three  hun- 
dreth  number,  and  from  week  to  week  its  appear- 
ance is  looked  for  with  interest  by  more  readers  of 
taste  and  intellectual  culture  than  any  other  heb- 
dominal  in  the  country.  Mr.  Littell  was  the  foun- 
der of  this  school  of  publications.  His  Museum  of 
foreign  Literature  was  for  twenty  years  the  chief 
medium  through  which  the  periodical  literature  of 
Europe  was  diffused  through  America.  The  Liv- 
ing Age  has  existed  about  six  years,  and  during 
that  period  it  has  gained  a  wider  circulation,  and 
become  a  far  more  valuable  work.  It  exceeds  all 
similar  publications,  in  being  a  weekly,  in  the  liv- 
ing and  electric  spirit  of  its  articles,  in  their 
immense  volume  and  variety,  and  in  the  punctu- 
ality of  its  appearance.  If  an  extraordinary  arti- 
cle comes  out  in  Blackwood,  or  any  of  the  great 
reviews,  his  readers  are  sure  to  be  among  the  first 
to  get  it.  Any  number  of  the  Living  Age  is  relia- 
ble reading  to  slip  into  the  pocket  for  a  leisure 
evening,  a  steamboat,  or  a  railway  car,  and  if  there 
has  been  a  change  in  it,  it  has  steadily  been  grow- 
ing better  from  the  beginning.  The  twenty-two 
bound  volumes  of  this  work  contain  more  LITERA- 
TURE than  has  ever  been  crowded  into  the  same 
space,  and  as  a  reference  book,  or  one  for  family 
reading,  make  up  a  richer,  racier,  and  a  more 
varied  library  than  can  be  had  for  the  same  expense 
in  any  form." 

33anjjor  (ifce.)  Bemocrat.— This  charming 
and  ever  popular  weekly  periodical,  makes  its 
appearance  regularly  ;  and  keeps  up  its  character 
with  unabated  impartiality  and  taste.  We  cannot 
too  warmly  press  this  excellent  serial  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  every  admirer  of  solid  and  instructive 
reading. 

3SatJ)  (jffte.)  Bads  &pberttser.—  Littell's  Liv- 
ing Age  comes  to  us  with  unvarying  regularity. 
It  contains  about  all  that  is  worthy  of  preservation 
in  the  reviews  and  literary  publications  of  the  day. 
We  repeat  what  we  have  before  said,  that  in  Teal 
worth  it  is  of  more  value  than  all  the  other  maga- 
zines in  the  country. 

Wetoport  (3&.  £.)  StDberttser.—  It  contains  a 
variety  of  exceedingly  entertaining  'matter,  which 
is  as  diversified  as  one  could  wish.  We  are  con- 
stantly alluding  to  this  valuable  work,  as  contain- 
ing the  best  selections  from  the  English  and  Ameri- 
can periodicals,  and  are  anxious  to  see  it  in  the 
tands  of  all  our  readers. 


